So, this evening was unusually active, for me, which in itself is something of a miracle.
At 5, I had another chiropractic appointment. Dad and I had also signed up prior to come to this little lecture the chiropractor would be giving tonight, so we spent the next hour and half driving around to various places.
First we hit the bookstore, and I was able to find a bunch more books by Richard Dawkins (sorry, Miss A), and we had a snack at the cafe - Dad had a panini and I had a pizza-stuffed pretzel.
Then we walked off our quick dinner with a stroll around the ponds at the library, passing by many ducks and a few geese, who honked angrily at us for forcing them off the sidewalk.
After that, we ran by the bank because we were already out and about and I'll need money next week when the Doctor Who: Complete Series 4 DVD set comes out. *shot*
Then we went back to the chiropractor and just sat in the parking lot for another half hour reading our books. The lecture was about sleep disorders, their various causes, and what sort of therapies could be implemented to help get your sleep back on track.
ABOUT THE BOOKS: Here are the synopses of the books I bought.
The Selfish Gene
The Selfish Gene caused a wave of excitement among biologists and the general public when it was first published in 1976. Its vivid rendering of a gene's-eye-view of life, in lucid prose, gathered together the strands of thought about the nature of natural selection into a conceptual framework with far-reaching implications for our understanding of evolution. Time has confirmed its significance. Intellectually rigorous, yet written in non-technical language, The Selfish Gene is widely regarded as a masterpiece of science writing, and its insights remain as relevant today as on the day it was published.
The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design
Twenty years after its original publication, The Blind Watchmaker is as prescient and timely a book as ever. The watchmaker belongs to the eighteenth-century theologian, William Paley, who argued that just as a watch is too complicated and functional to have sprung into existence by accident, so too must all living things, with their far greater complexity, be purposefully designed. Charles Darwin's brilliant discovery challenged the creationist arguments, but only Richard Dawkins could have written this elegant riposte. Natural selection: the unconscious, automatic, blind, yet essentially non-random process Darwin discovered, has no purpose in mind. If it can be said to play the role of watchmaker in nature, it is the blind watchmaker.
Unweaving The Rainbow: Science, Delusion, and the Appetite for Wonder
Did Newton "unweave the rainbow" by reducing it to its prismatic colors, as Keats contended? Did he, in other words, diminish beauty? Far from it, says acclaimed scientist Richard Dawkins; Newton's unweaving is the key to much of modern astronomy and to the breathtaking poetry of modern cosmology. Mysteries don't lose their poetry because they are solved: the solution often is more beautiful than the puzzle, uncovering deeper mysteries.
With wit, insight, and spellbinding prose that have made him a best-selling author, Dawkins takes up the most important and compelling topics in modern science, from astronomy and genetics to language and virtual reality, combining them in a landmark statement of the human appetite for wonder.
The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution
With unparalleled wit, clarity, and intelligence, Richard Dawkins, one of the world's most renowned evolutionary biologists, has introduced countless readers to the wonders of science in works such as The Selfish Gene. Now, in The Ancestor's Tale, Dawkins offers a masterwork: an exhilarating reverse tour through evolution, from present-day humans back to the microbial beginnings of life four billion years ago. Throughout the journey Dawkins spins entertaining, insightful stories and sheds light on topics such as speciation, sexual selection, and extinction. The Ancestor's Tale is at once an essential education in evolutionary theory and a riveting read.
