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R. Sal Reyes's avatar

I love this post. There’s so much honesty in it, and I feel like what you’re saying too often goes unsaid in the name of politeness (because—as you went to great lengths to point out—these aren't people who really *deserve* our ire, but that doesn't make anyone's inanity less inane). You could’ve written an almost identical piece about TED talks and all their spawn. My pet peeve in this aisle of the bookstore are all those tomes that herald a single *amazing* insight or conclusion (which can be gleaned from the book jacket) but is primarily a series of long, real-life narratives that are meant to demonstrate this insight in a fascinating way, each followed by a long set of statistics that support the idea, and then some vaguely different restatement of the insight gleaned from the book jacket. I won’t name names, but they know who they are.

I will, however, name the name of my favorite science writer—one who I think is, in a way, a combination of the expert and the amateur in his work: Oliver Sacks. I don’t think there’s a more well-written, fascinating, empathetic, insightful & enlightening pop science book than “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.” Obviously, Sacks is an expert writing about his field of expertise (the brain), but his case studies veer from the strictly medical path into areas in which doctors might be considered amateurs: exploring the concepts of self & identify, or what it really means to be a human in those variously altered mental circumstances. I feel like Sacks was able to show how neuroscience and its insights can actually bring us closer to understanding who we really are.

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Michael Wolf's avatar

"Why most popular science books suck?" is explained by Sturgeon's Law (90% of everything is crap) and my just-invented corollary (90% of the rest is barely better than crap).

That said, your list of books includes many of my favorites. The only one not on the list that comes to mind is "The Beginning of Infinity" by David Deutsch.

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