Quote Originally Posted by missjean View Post
Two books that I enjoyed were...
"At Home" by Bill Bryson, (of Appalachian Trail book "A Walk in The Woods") (...)
"The Age of Wonder" by Richard Holmes which is all about science at the end of the 18th century.
I love Bill Bryson, and just re-read "A Walk in The Woods". He's pretty straightforwardly funny and you know what to expect, but still, I've done some long-distance hiking and his descriptions of his companion Katz going temporarily insane and throwing half the contents of his pack over a cliff had me laughing hysterically

And I love well written books about science and especially peoples relationship to science and the natural world. I'll look for the one you mentioned. None read recently so I'm having trouble remembering the names, but I have a couple by Dava Sobel ("Longitude", "Galileo's daughter"), one about how people have viewed mountains ("Mountains of the Mind", I think), "Guns, Germs and Steel" is brilliant, and one about Fermat's Theorem was also a great read. I like how the genre gives you a little insight into not only the hard science, but also into the psychology of how we view the world.