Right now Robert Sapolsky, professor of neuroendocrinology at Stanford University, is tackling Antonio Damasio鈥檚 Descartes鈥� Error (Avon, 1995), a 鈥済reat exploration of the interactions between cognition and emotion at the neurobiological level鈥�, he says.
Another book he鈥檚 reading is Emergence by Steven Johnson (Penguin), which he says is one of the more scientific yet accessible versions of the emergence genre. And The Darwin Wars by Andrew Brown (Simon & Schuster, 2001) is 鈥渞eally smart, acerbic writing about gradualism versus saltation in evolution,鈥� he adds.
On the lighter side, he鈥檚 just finished The Bravest Dog Ever by Natalie Standiford (Random House, 1989), the true story of Balto the Wonder Dog, 鈥渁bout 300 times 鈥� with my five-year-old son,鈥� he adds. Then there鈥檚 Jonathan Lethem鈥檚 鈥渇airly schlocky鈥� detective novel Motherless Brooklyn (Vintage, 2000), in which the detective has Tourette鈥檚 syndrome. Wonderfully done, he says.
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An impressive reading list. But it鈥檚 not all cool runnings: 鈥淏ooks I wish I had already read but am too intimidated to actually read? I have to say A New Kind of Science by Stephen Wolfram,鈥� he says.