essays

In December of last year I finished a collection of short humorous archaeological essays. It's my sixth book, my first one in Swedish, my first one aimed at the lay reader. Since then I've been waiting for established Swedish publishing houses to pronounce judgement on it. Five of them have now turned it down, none with any very detailed explanation, but most of them in terms suggesting that they think it's competently written but it probably wouldn't sell much. As a long-time blogger and e-book reader, I am not particularly disheartened by this. After all, this blog has a greater number of…
Essays are like cupcakes: they're tasty, abundant, idiosyncratic, and small enough to finish without feeling you've overindulged - which leaves you vulnerable to the self-deception that just one more is a good idea. So here are some weekend reading suggestions for a lazy Sunday. --At SEED, Carl Zimmer's love letter to natural history museums as functional wonder cabinets: Gradually, royalty's cabinets of wonders turned into libraries of flesh and rock, where scholars could research the workings of the world. Ole Worm, a 17th-century anatomist, became famous for his collection of narwhal…
tags: book review, science essays, technology, Present at the Future, Ira Flatow Many months ago, I was signed up for the HarperCollins email list that briefly describes their books that are hot off the presses, prior to their public release. The publisher then holds a contest where they ask you to email them a little essay describing why you would be the best person to review a particular title in their list, then they choose the winners and mail the books. Even though HarperCollins published several scientific books this past year, including one that dealt with evolution, my essay was…