If
you are, then these two books should pique your interest.
Michael
McCarthy’s lyrical book, The Moth Snowstorm: Nature and Joy, puts a new slant on
species extinction. He remembers riding in a car at night when he was a boy and
how moths appeared in the car’s headlights, “in such numbers there would be a
veritable snowstorm....” I remember summer nights as filled with lightning bugs
as the sky was filled with stars. Moths and lightning bugs still appear in our
evening world, but not anywhere near the numbers Various insect species have
declined 70-90% since 1968. Did you notice those populations dwindling? What
should we think about their decline?
A
different exploration, a “conversatioal essay” (according to the Weekly Standard), is The Wandering
Mind: What the Brain Does When You’re Not Looking, by Michael C.
Corballis. The author takes up a defense of absent-mindedness! Surely, many of
us will feel vindicated and comforted by his evidence and arguments!
The
Moth Snowstorm: Nature and Joy
by
Michael McCarthy
Hardcover,
262pp w/ index
$24.95
The
Wandering Mind: What the Brain Does When You’re Not Looking
by
Michael C. Corballis
Paper,
173pp w/ index
$16.00
The new hardcover books in the photo below are now on sale at Dog Ears Books, at 30% or more off the original retail price.
