Adventures in weeding the library collection usually begins with scanning the shelves or running reports. This time, I took a trip to the 500's section. The book to the left hasn't circulated in over 10 years. After scanning the first few pages I found that it's super interesting. I also realized how little I know about Science in general. Thus, I decided I'd start with Asimov. Who, interestingly has been quoted saying "Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is." So, there you go.
Isaac Asimov wrote a bunch of science essays for the "Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction" and 17 of them are all collected here in "The Tragedy of the Moon".
Who is Isaac Asimov anyway?
According to Wikipedia, "Isaac Asimov (January 2, 1920– April 6, 1992) was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was prolific and wrote or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards. His books have been published in 9 of the 10 major categories of the Dewey Decimal Classification.
In an essay entitled "The Week Excuse" (Chapter 4, "The Tragedy of the Moon"), Asimov says this about himself: "Over the past few years I have appeared on television talk shows ...often enough to give some people an uncertain feeling of quasi-recognition when they see me. The recognition...is aided by the sideburns and the long hair...which gives me a rather leonine look." Now, this is my favorite part... "Add to that a kind of ferocious expression I naturally fall into when thinking--which is generally all the time--and I suppose I become a trifle hard to forget"
Hmm...I wonder what he actually looked like?
Isaac Asimov wrote a bunch of science essays for the "Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction" and 17 of them are all collected here in "The Tragedy of the Moon".
Who is Isaac Asimov anyway?
According to Wikipedia, "Isaac Asimov (January 2, 1920– April 6, 1992) was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was prolific and wrote or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards. His books have been published in 9 of the 10 major categories of the Dewey Decimal Classification.
In an essay entitled "The Week Excuse" (Chapter 4, "The Tragedy of the Moon"), Asimov says this about himself: "Over the past few years I have appeared on television talk shows ...often enough to give some people an uncertain feeling of quasi-recognition when they see me. The recognition...is aided by the sideburns and the long hair...which gives me a rather leonine look." Now, this is my favorite part... "Add to that a kind of ferocious expression I naturally fall into when thinking--which is generally all the time--and I suppose I become a trifle hard to forget"
Hmm...I wonder what he actually looked like?
Not too shabby...
Maybe a little shabby...
But still very cool.
Healing with Humor.
In the chapter "About the Thyroid Gland", Asimov writes an essay called "Doctor, Doctor, cut my throat" where he describes the experience he had before and after having half his thyroid removed. Being no stranger to thyroid issues, this piqued my interest. Like me, Asimov's result was that he had to take Thyroid pills for the rest of his life. And this is what he had to say about it: "So there you are, and there I am, and I don't like it, but the universe doesn't care whether you like it or not, and I can only be thankful it was no worse. And now, barring further incidents of a distressing nature, it may well be that I will continue writing these essays for some time to come. I hope." Asimov lived 19 years after that was published and he did write much more.
His catalogue can be found here: http://www.asimovonline.com/oldsite/asimov_catalogue.html
In the chapter "About the Thyroid Gland", Asimov writes an essay called "Doctor, Doctor, cut my throat" where he describes the experience he had before and after having half his thyroid removed. Being no stranger to thyroid issues, this piqued my interest. Like me, Asimov's result was that he had to take Thyroid pills for the rest of his life. And this is what he had to say about it: "So there you are, and there I am, and I don't like it, but the universe doesn't care whether you like it or not, and I can only be thankful it was no worse. And now, barring further incidents of a distressing nature, it may well be that I will continue writing these essays for some time to come. I hope." Asimov lived 19 years after that was published and he did write much more.
His catalogue can be found here: http://www.asimovonline.com/oldsite/asimov_catalogue.html
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