Here is a quick go. I might add more later.
non-fiction favorites
Annals of the Former World by John McPhee -- As listed before, maybe the best literary book on geology out there.
Oil Notes by Rick Bass -- Short essays on the authors oil company days
Wonderful Life Stephen Jay Gould - The Cambrian explosion through one formation (the Burgess Shale). IMO a must read.
The Prize by Daniel Yergin --
The book on the history of oil.
Fiction favorite with some geology
A River Runs Through it by Norman Maclean touches on the Missoula Lake floods.
Others:
Where the Sea Used to Be by Rick Bass -- a novel. A bit long and uneventful. But, there is a long elaborate geological history "written" by the dark character in the book that is quite fascinating.
Noah's Flood by William Ryan & Walter Pitman -- On how the filling of the Black Sea seems to be "Noah's" flood.
The Last Boom by James Anthonly Clark & Michael Thomas Halbouty -- on the discovery of the East-Tex Oil field
The Map that Changed the World by Simon Winchester -- on William Smith who made the world's first geology map (on England, of course). I didn't love it, though.
Found a few typo's I had to fix.
Message edited by its author, Mar 4, 2007, 2:32pm.
It occurs to me that as the starter of this topic I probably should have listed a few books myself.
Earth by D.K. Publishing -- More of a reference book about the whole Earth itself, not just the lithosphere, but it does have lots of pictures of minerals and rock samples taken from the Mithsonian collection.
Earth: An Intimate History by Richard Fortey -- A book written for laymen but a good expiantion of the processes of the ever changing landscape.
I'll add more when I get the time (probably friday of this week ;P)
One of my favorite geology-related books is
Ecology of Fear by Mike Davis. It's a look a southern California and its relationship with natural disasters such as earthquakes, tornadoes, wild fire, etc. It's non-fiction, but a great read.
Disaster by the Bay by Paul Jeffers is another good non-fiction read. It's a description of the events associated with the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906.
Finally,
Raptor Red by Robert Bakker is a fictional "day in the life of" story told from the point of view of a Utahraptor, a Late Cretaceous dinosaur. It's amusing.
Message edited by its author, Feb 21, 2007, 7:38pm.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Map that Changed the World by Simon
Winchester, even if Winchester is a bit too kind to William Smith.
I am trying to get through
Earth : An intimate history but I find it a bit slow.
T. Rex and the crater of doom is an interesting read, it was one of the first "popular science" books I read in college.
It is very 'scholarly' and a bit slow to get through, but Hallam's
Great Geological Controversies is incredible interesting. It has lots of good detail about some of the exciting debates (and exciting personalities) that shaped geology.
More to do with poetry than geology, but as a geology undergrad I rather enjoyed
Possession by
AS Byatt. She paints a great picture of her hero (a Victorian gentleman poet) who also has a thing for palaeontology and Charles Lyell.
Speaking of poetry, there is a great book called
Trilobite Poems, well it's more of a pamphlet than a book, but amusing nonetheless. My favorite poem is the one that outlines a horror movie starring trilobites -- a "Cambrian Park" sort of theme.
Message edited by its author, Mar 7, 2007, 3:04pm.
Finished The Map That Changed the World recently and loved it. Have to get around to his other works sometime. My principle interest is in the fossils that become part of the rocks, so
Wonderful Life by
Steven Jay Gould was an early find, but I was very disappointed in some aspects, so turned to
The Crucible of Creation by
Simon Conway Morris for a more believable take.
However, the book that turned me on to physical geography in the first place was my school textbook,
Morphology and Landscape, by
Harry Robinson. I often regret that the practicalities of boning up for a future career in computers led me astray: I
really, really should have done physical geog. at Uni, and then gone into computers afterwards.
Message edited by its author, Apr 1, 2007, 5:56pm.
I must admit that I couldn't get through
Richard Fortey's Earth and eventually decided to put it down. Some parts of it were good, but I felt as though I was just pushing myself to finish it.
This message has been deleted by its author.
EncompassedRunner: Go see atomicmutant, he'll set you straight. Also, see
Noah's Flood.
MissElliot: So, what was it that made Fortey's book so difficult to read? I really can't place my finger on it. I thought there were really great parts. But the Hawaii section and some others were just painful to work through. Not sure why, though.
This message has been deleted by its author.
I didn't finish Fortey's book either. Not sure why, but he just seemed to go on and on without going into any detail. I felt like he was paid for the number of pages he churned up.
I'm very disappointed to see young-earth "nonfiction" books listed here. This is a geology group, not a religion group. Incidentally, I have just finished reading
Brent Dalrymple's
The Age of the Earth, which is an excellent and thorough exposition of the science beyond geochronology and its particular application to the age of the planet. It's accessible enough to anyone genuinely interested in what has been found out by the actual research of thousands of scientists (almost none of them ideologues, all of them honest and intelligent people). I strongly recommend it.
Also recently read
Volcano Cowboys by
Dick Thompson, which is fabulous and exciting! It focuses in detail on St Helens (1980) and Pinatubo (1991) and developments in between.
Message edited by its author, Sep 30, 2007, 8:34am.
#6 There was an interesting bit in
Possession about a piece of jewelry acquired during the tryst carved from stone that was unique to a certain area of England that I believe was Blackpool. Anybody remember this and the type of stone?
What would be a good book for a 13 year old who thinks he might want to be a geologist? He picks up rocks and has read bits and pieces on geology. I was considering Teaching Company's lectures on geology, but it's no longer on sale. Recommendations appreciated!
#19 Margd,
Someone probably has a good answer to this. I wish I did, but I never thought about geology before my college 101 class. The best intro for an adult are the John McPhee books. I don't have any experience with young adult focused geology books and no ideas that compare to that Teaching Company set (which looks really nice.. amazon has one copy
herefor $140..pricey!). So, just waving my hands...
1. Finding more places to get his hands on rocks certainly beats any book.
2. The second best thing might be a book on something he can actually see. So, anything on geology (or geography) local to you, including what's in your local natural history museum.
3.
Smithsonian Rock And Gem. I own this, and it's wonderful. Beautiful colors, tons of detail all major mineral groups, also general rock summaries.
Just entertainment ideas:
-Planet Earth DVD's
-Holiday coffee table type books? My local Costco had some pricey ones on geology and related theme - I want them!
etc.
margd,
When I was a little older than 13, I read
Digging Dinosaurs by
John R. Horner and
The Dinosaur Heresies (a rather lengthy tome) by
Robert T. Bakker. Both of these reflect my bias towards paleontology, but if he's interested in science, he should like them. Also,
Bully for Brontosaurus by Stephen Jay Gould and
Death by Black Hole by
Neil deGrasse Tyson are collections of essays that have appeared in Natural History Magazine. Again, neither is focused on general geology, but both are relevant and accessible for young readers. National Geographic magazine periodically has good geology articles, too.
You may also want to try the Roadside Geology/Geology Underfoot book series (
Mountain Press). I think there are 28 states covered now. If there is a university library nearby, they likely have some local geology guides. Good luck, and let us know what you find.
Message edited by its author, Dec 20, 2007, 5:00pm.
On sale ($99, down from regular price of $374.95) until 31 January at
www.TEACH12.com, the DVD course "The Nature of Earth: An Introduction to Geology." Our (now) 14YO son, his parents, and Grandpa are enjoying son's Christmas/birthday copy (courtesy Grandpa!).
(Also on sale this month--a number of other science and mathematics courses.)
Some good geology mysteries with female sleuths:
Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon series: Anna Pigeon is a park ranger in various US National Parks where there is always a murder to solve. The first book is
Track of the Cat, there are 13 Anna Pigeon books so far and the 14th, Winter Study is coming out in April.
Sarah Andrews' Em Hansen series: Em Hansen is a geologist who ends up helping with a variety of mysteries by contributing geologic forensic evidence and interpretation. The settings vary across the geologic disciplines - oil to environmental - etc. The first book in the series is
Tensleep and the 10th (released Aug 2007) is In Cold Pursuit.
Susan Cummins Miller has 4 mystery books so far following the geology career (student into career) of Frankie MacFarlane. The book titles are:
Death Assemblage, Detatchment Fault, Quarry, and Hoodoo.
Hmm, sorry not all of the titles are linked by touchstones. Those not linked did not come up correctly and I couldn't get the "other" choice to work.
Definitely all the John McPhee, and I remember especially enjoying
Basin and Range, but maybe that's because it's my backyard (I live in Bishop, California, the Eastern Sierra and western edge of the Great Basin).
Lots of Stephen Jay Gould relates to Geology - I have read so many, though, I don't remember which ones. The one where he tells the story of Alfred Wegener and "Continental Drift" and Plate Tectonics is great and I often use examples from it to educate people about how science works - though the general public thinks the "evidence" for plate tectonics that Wegener found is all you need, Gould explains the whole process of scientific thought and discovery very clearly. I also remember one where he talked about Geologic time... I love him - I should re-read these since I can't remember them! I don't think I've read
Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle, though, and clearly I should!!
I tend to read site-specific geology books, like
King Huber on Yosemite -
The Geologic Story of Yosemite National Park is excellent, and also
Geology of the Sierra Nevada, among others. I also have read
Prairie, Peak and Plateau: the Geology of the Colorado Plateau,
The Colorado Plateau - a geologic history and
Geology of Utah (I'm not sure if the touchstone is the right one - I'll have to go investigate further and revise as necessary). And of course the
Roadside Geology guides to various places. I just bought
Deepest Valley about my big backyard, and it includes some geology as well. I live in a hotbed of great geology here - nestled between Death Valley and the Sierra Nevada! Oh, I'm pretty sure I have books on Death Valley Geology somewhere, too... :)
Message edited by its author, Jun 20, 2008, 5:52pm.
#19 margd,
The recommendations of dchaikin and naheim sound good to me. I have a 12 year old nephew who I buy geology books for and you pretty much just have to go to the adult level, I've found. Good basic Geology 101 texts, a text called
Physical Geology: Earth Revealed and its accompanying PBS series by the same name, definitely the Smithsonian rocks and minerals guide. I also bought my nephew a hand lens from the Miners Catalog (www.minerox.com) and gave him some rock samples that I had collected on various field trips. You can also buy rock samples from Miners.
Edited book title again.
Message edited by its author, Jun 24, 2008, 4:33pm.
Just thought of another suggestion: not really geology per se, but an orienteering guide and a compass is a good way to develop a sense of direction and spatial relationships. I bought my nephew a guide by Bjorn Kjellstrom (
"Be Expert with Map and Compass: The Complete Orienteering Handbook") that I thought would be easy enough for him to learn from and easy enough for his parents to understand so they can help him.
Most of my formal geology books are old textbooks and probably out of date (
Kummel's
History of the Earth has one paragraph on continental drift).
I'm quite fond of the
Roadside Geology of ... series; I'm not sure how suitable they would be for young people, though. If I remember my own childhood correctly, at a young age you're more interested in fine details - individual fossils, mineral crystals, etc. - and less in the "big picture".
#28 side note: Annals of the Former World includes Assembling California. It's a compilation of McPhee's four geology books, plus an extra chapter.
Whoops - thanks. Guess I need to unpack my non-academic books one of these days and revisit them. :)
Hey everybody,
I have a strange request for ya'll.
I was wondering if you guys could recommend a Geochemistry and Geomorphology textbook. I would really like to take these classes, but they conflict with the classes I need to take in order to graduate. My desire to graduate this semester is much greater than my desire to take either of these two classes.
So if any of you have a recomendation for either text, that I can easily be used to self teach myself it would be much appreciated.
Thanks
The Geomorph text i have from college, which was admittidally(sp?) a long time ago, is
Geomorphology by
Arthur L. Bloom; i do not know if it has been updated by the author or others.
There is one more of John McPhee's books no one has mentioned but which i found very informative
The Control of Nature which dealt w/various attempts by humans to just that, i.e. control nature. Some of those attempts being more successful than others they include the Army Corps' work on the Mississippi & the 'flood control' people in the LA area who seek to keep California's climate & geology from wiping the human poulation off of the map! It is very inteesting reading. John McPhee is very good at making Geology accessible to everybody. 8^)
Edited by author to correct silly spelling mistake.
Message edited by its author, Aug 14, 2008, 6:16pm.
I also used Bloom's text fairly recently and enjoyed it. For geochem, it depends on the field of geochem you're interested in. For stable isotopes, I used Sharp (sorry, only remember last names, and books are in boxes in the attic); for aqueous, I used Langmuir; I think there are also some decent general geochem texts out there, but I haven't used any. Hope that helps.
I'd like to do some proselytizing here for Trilobites of New York: An Illustrated Guide (pesky touchstone not working...):
The text is pitched at a perfect level for the serious student, the science is laid out in detail, the book is illustrated with beautiful photographs: this is just a sterling example of what a geology book can be.
(And best of all, it's just been remaindered, so it's available for about $10 if you shop around for it....)
I finally got and read
Reading the Rocks: The Autobiography of the Earth by
Marcia Bjornerud.
While more pop-Geology than anything else, she gives a good general overview of Earth history, nothing I didn't already know, but I still enjoyed reading it over again. I was blown away at her ability to convey how geologist think (It's hard to get into discussions with the neighbors about earthquakes, hurricanes, landslides, supervolcanoes, tsunamis without sounding callous and overly excited at the same time) and why we get excited over things like rip-up clasts sandwiched between massive layers Micritic limestones. My girlfriend read it in a few days and now understands how my uncle and I can get into 3-hour conversations about permeabilities and there meanings to our respective fields.
I think I'll give this book to my parents next.
Message edited by its author, Jan 1, 2009, 10:55pm.
Just going to add a few books to the list:
Dictionary of Geological Terms - Obviously a reference book, but helpful to have around when reading any of the other books mentioned.
Fire Under the Sea - Pretty interesting look at the discovery and evolving science of underwater vents. A lot of info on other aspects of geology. Might be kind of dated.
Irons in the Fire - Forensic geology essay qualifies this book, but truthfully, if
Annals of the Former World didn't make you want to read anything written by John McPhee, I'm surprised.
The Man who Found Time - Interesting look at Hutton's life. Don't read this one for any science.
Plate Tectonics - Incredibly fascinating look at the evolution of the plate tectonics theory. Highly recommended, but I imagine most people wouldn't finish it.
The Seashell on the Mountaintop - Biography of Nicolaus Steno. Reading this makes me agree with Gould that Steno was actually the father of geology. Again, don't read for scientific knowledge.
Gotta mention
Volcano Cowboys again. Very interesting. I liked
Krakatoa and
The Map That Changed the World, but Simon Winchester does sometimes (frequently?) drag out the story, seemingly to add pages.
Of course, if you only ever read one book about geology ever, it has to be
Annals of the Former World.
'allo les 'gangue'
Many thanks for a higher TBR pile, time to try and return the favor.
Several non-fiction titles written by professors with the public in mind, or masterful displays of knowledge, verve and lucidness...
Rocks From Space by
Richard O. NortonAfter the Ice Age by EC Pielou
I can also recommend any number of mineralogy and gemmology titles if anyone is interested or stop by and visit.
Down the Great Unknown is about the Powell Expedition on the Colorado River.
Bretz's Flood is about J Harlen Bretz & his fight to gain acceptance for his assertion that the Channeled Scablands were created by a flood! 8^)
Actually, that would be handy, How in depth does it go? Cover any tectonic geomorph?
It has articles on spreading centers and how they shift, and on various terranes, and where they came from, as well as several types of orogeny.
Margd: No question, I would give him
The Field Guide to Geology, by David Lambert & the Diagram Group. I have the 1998 edition, published in the U.S. by Facts on File ($15 pb); there is a 2006 edition listed in LibrThing & at Amazon.com; the School Library Journal review amazon includes makes some interesting points though, and doesn't praise it overly (they & Amazon's citizen reviews give some other book suggestions). But SLJ is reviewing for school librarians, who have to support curricula.
Visual-info-oriented (that's Diagram Group's style), tho printed in several colors of inks instead of full color. It uses everything from pen & ink drawings to reproductions from Agricola in the 1500s, old nat'l history book engravings, a few photos, and conveys a lot of information in the text. Lots of interesting cross-sections, showing the patterns under the surface of the earth. A great deal more about geology than about geologists...
Come to think of it, kids used to modern school textbooks, which are so colorpix-crammed, might be underwhelmed at first. Maybe it helps to be from the Mesozoic era, like some of us...
Ideally you could see this book via your local library before committing to buy it. This one book alone may not feed all his interests; SLJ makes a good point, that photos, incl. aerial photos, are the other part of the visual interest of geology, and also need to be represented. (But get another book or two for that).
No, I haven't talked myself out of liking it; I'd hand it to any neophyte in a second. For me, this book makes the hidden wonder clear, sez I. It's not a text, it's a taste!
Message edited by its author, Oct 26, 2009, 3:24am.
I own
The field Guide to Geology & love it as it puts me in mind of some of the very old Geology texts such as Leet, Judson, et al which had such great diagrams in them! So many concepts in Geology will are very difficult for a new student to recognize in the field if they have not seen good diagrams accompanied by clear definitions as well as clear photos/slides in the classroom before the embark on a field trip. Even my Geomorph' text
Geomorphology has many wonderful diagrams & is a very early edition by
Arthur L. Bloom (1978) since i graduated from college in 1987 this is no surprise but the diagrams are still very informative, So i certainly concur that The Field Guide is a great reference. 8^)
Well now there is an actual List of sorts.
If I have a book in an incorrect section or a touchstone not linking to the right book then please speak up.
Message edited by its author, Nov 13, 2009, 6:42pm.
Cool list. I've starred this thread.
stretch - Fantastic! Thanks for putting that together.
As a non-professional, I've been mainly a "lurker" on this forum, but this list is a wonderful idea.
The following books may be mainly of regional interest, but they are excellent:
Ontario Rocks : Three Billion Years of Environmental Change / by Nick Eyles. Markham, ON : Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2002.
Canada Rocks : The Geologic Journey / by Nick Eyles and
Andrew Miall. Markham, ON : Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2007.
And this last one may be getting a little dated now, but it's still a wonderful reference for understanding the glacial landforms all around us here in southern Ontario:
The Physiography of Southern Ontario, 3rd ed. / by
L. J. Chapman and D. F. Putnam. Toronto : Ontario Geological Survey, 1984.
Nick Eyles is a professor of Geology at the University of Toronto.
Lyman Chapman formerly worked at the Ontario Research Foundation.
Edited to correct my typingMessage edited by its author, Nov 17, 2009, 7:46am.
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