Books have been bubbling up from the comments cauldron. Jim Harrison has asked what I think of Simon Conway Morris’s Life’s Solution. Web Webster says Cosmos was his first favorite science book and asks for suggestions. Humboldt and Feyerband make an appearance too. It’s ironic that two forms of reading that are competing furiously these days for my free time–books and blogs–meet at this crossroads.

Let me just say that I have four books on my desk, that I am trying to dig into. They’re either just out or about to come out. For the most part, I can’t tell you that they’re great or lousy, because I haven’t really started them yet, but I am intensely curious about