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14. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, Carl Sagan
13. Knitting Rules! The Yarn Harlot Unravels the Mysteries of Swatching, Stashing, Ribbing, & Rolling to Free Your Inner Knitter, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka the Yarn Harlot
12. Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America, Linda Lawrence Hunt
11. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Rebecca Wells
10. Patient Zero, Jonathon Maberry
9. God's Country, Percival Everett
8. Heart of Stone, C. E. Murphy
7. The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America's First Superhero, William Kalush and Larry Sloman
6. The Good Fairies of New York, Martin Millar
5. Limeys: The True Story of One Man's War Against Ignorance, the Establishment and the Deadly Scurvy, David I. Harvie
4. The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
3. Tatham Mound, Piers Anthony
2. Alas, Babylon, Pat Frank
1. Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman
I love Carl Sagan. He's an amazing writer: every chapter has a thesis and supporting arguments, a clear introduction and middle and conclusion, he's clear and concise, he uses quotes frequently but doesn't just drop them in--he explains, exhorts, argues for or against the quotes.
This is awesome writing.
Beyond the writing, Sagan is still awesome. In Demon Haunted World, he argues that people need to be more skeptical and less credulous. He advocates asking questions and examining evidence--things that science does. He also urges a blend of skepticism and wonder. Sagan sees no need to turn to supernatural explanations for events--nature provides wonder enough without adding in extraterrestrial visits and religion and ghosties. In this way, he reminds me of Richard Dawkins (though Dawkins argues absolutely against religion and Sagan, at least in this book, didn't strike me as militantly anti-religion). Dawkins sees no need to turn to the Bible for explanations; nature provides her own through evolution, and, what's more, nature requires no outside force to create wonder. Again, she provides her own.
My favorite chapter was the one in which he discussed aliens and crop circles. Crop circles, by the way, are created by humans. The original crop circle makers were two guys sitting in a pub who decided to go mess with their neighbors, and they used a plank and a piece of steel.
My least favorite chapter(s) were the last 3. Sagan turns to politics in the last 3 or 4 chapters, and it gets repetitive. Or maybe I was just more interested in the science bit and not so much in the politics bit.
Interesting book. I highly recommend it.
13. Knitting Rules! The Yarn Harlot Unravels the Mysteries of Swatching, Stashing, Ribbing, & Rolling to Free Your Inner Knitter, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka the Yarn Harlot
12. Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America, Linda Lawrence Hunt
11. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Rebecca Wells
10. Patient Zero, Jonathon Maberry
9. God's Country, Percival Everett
8. Heart of Stone, C. E. Murphy
7. The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America's First Superhero, William Kalush and Larry Sloman
6. The Good Fairies of New York, Martin Millar
5. Limeys: The True Story of One Man's War Against Ignorance, the Establishment and the Deadly Scurvy, David I. Harvie
4. The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
3. Tatham Mound, Piers Anthony
2. Alas, Babylon, Pat Frank
1. Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman
I love Carl Sagan. He's an amazing writer: every chapter has a thesis and supporting arguments, a clear introduction and middle and conclusion, he's clear and concise, he uses quotes frequently but doesn't just drop them in--he explains, exhorts, argues for or against the quotes.
This is awesome writing.
Beyond the writing, Sagan is still awesome. In Demon Haunted World, he argues that people need to be more skeptical and less credulous. He advocates asking questions and examining evidence--things that science does. He also urges a blend of skepticism and wonder. Sagan sees no need to turn to supernatural explanations for events--nature provides wonder enough without adding in extraterrestrial visits and religion and ghosties. In this way, he reminds me of Richard Dawkins (though Dawkins argues absolutely against religion and Sagan, at least in this book, didn't strike me as militantly anti-religion). Dawkins sees no need to turn to the Bible for explanations; nature provides her own through evolution, and, what's more, nature requires no outside force to create wonder. Again, she provides her own.
My favorite chapter was the one in which he discussed aliens and crop circles. Crop circles, by the way, are created by humans. The original crop circle makers were two guys sitting in a pub who decided to go mess with their neighbors, and they used a plank and a piece of steel.
My least favorite chapter(s) were the last 3. Sagan turns to politics in the last 3 or 4 chapters, and it gets repetitive. Or maybe I was just more interested in the science bit and not so much in the politics bit.
Interesting book. I highly recommend it.