How sad I am

There was a time when I had read most of the Nobel prize candidates (and therefore a few winners) before they were awarded the prize. But that seems like a long time ago. Slowly I fell out of touch with literature but until today I had not realized how serious my fall from literature had become.

That I had not read the latest prizewinner in literature Herta Müller did not overly upset me. I had after all been falling out of literature for some time.

But now that I heard that that the economics prizewinners were Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson I was shocked. Not that they don’t deserve the prize – they really do. But what shocked me was that this is the first year I have books written by the economics winners in my bookshelf behind my desk (I have even cited their works) but I have never heard of the literature winner.

How sad.

Science books: The best of the best

Tim Radford reviews the short listed books for this years prestigious Royal Society Science Book Prize. Read the reviews and then go read the books. We are living in a time when science books are fun reading – are we at the height of science reporting? So sure the criticism that science becomes devalued into entertainment but that’s a hell of lot better than being ignored.

What the Nose Knows: The Science of Scent in Everyday Life by Avery Gilbert (Crown $23.95)

What the Nose Knows - Royal Society Science Book Prize

Bad Science by Ben Goldacre (Harper Perennial £8.99)

Bad Science - Royal Society Science Book Prize

The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes (Harper Press £25)

The Age of Wonder - Royal Society Science Book Prize

Decoding the Heavens: Solving the Mystery of the World’s First Computer by Jo Marchant (Windmill Books £8.99)

Decoding the Heavens - Royal Society Science Book Prize

The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow (Penguin £9.99)

The Drunkard's Walk - Royal Society Science Book Prize

Your Inner Fish: The Amazing Discovery of Our 375-million-year-old Ancestor by Neil Shubin (Penguin £9.99)

You Inner Fish - Royal Society Science Book Prize

Highlights in the History of Concrete…

What have the following books got in common:

How to Shit in the Woods: An Environmentally Sound Approach to a Lost Art (Ten Speed Press)

How to Avoid Huge Ships (Cornwell Maritime Press)

Highlights in the History of Concrete (British Cement Association)

Bombproof Your Horse (J A Allen)

Well they have all won the Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year. This prize has been awarded for the past thirty years and you can check out the other strange titles here. Some of them are just odd, but who knows with the right marketing…