National Public Radio (npr) in the USA are currently running a piece on recommended ‘Freshmen common reads’. These are books many colleges and universities ask their new intake of students to read over the summer and be prepared to talk about in the first week of the first semester on campus.
Npr have been asking their listeners and readers to contribute their choices, which include Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel, as well as Natalie Angier’s The Canon: A Whirligig Tour Of The Beautiful Basics Of Science. Oddly enough, Angier’s book is one of the books I’m currently reading and it’s a cracker. It’s a pity that more head teachers and literacy co-ordinators don’t pick it up and read the chapter on ‘Thinking Scientifically’!
Anyway, you’ll find more where those came from on the npr website. And, if you would like to listen to Jared Diamond, professor of geography and physiology at UCLA, talking about his book and responding to questions from listeners you can catch it on npr’s podcast.