My Growing Library

Over the last year, I’ve significantly added to my library. Partly because I like reading. But also partly because I like to showboat a bit. 

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

The book tells the timeless story of war, in this case a conflict between humanity and the alien Taurans. Humans first bumped heads with the Taurans when we began using collapsars to travel the stars. Although the collapsars provide nearly instantaneous travel across vast distances, the relativistic speeds associated with the process means that time passes slower for those aboard ship. For William Mandella, a physics student drafted as a soldier, that means more than 27 years will have passed between his first encounter with the Taurans and his homecoming, though he himself will have aged only a year. When Mandella finds that he can’t adjust to Earth after being gone so long from home, he reenlists, only to find himself shuttled endlessly from battle to battle as the centuries pass. —Craig E. Engler

God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens 

In the tradition of Bertrand Russell’s Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris’s recent bestseller, The End of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloquent clarity, Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on science and reason, in which hell is replaced by the Hubble Telescope’s awesome view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty and symmetry
of the double helix.

Physicians Desk Reference by PDR & FDA

Physicians’ Desk Reference has been the authoritative source on prescription drugs for 66 years. Found in virtually every physician’s office, pharmacy, clinic, and library, no medical reference is more current, more recognized, or more respected. Now in its 66th year, PDR contains full FDA-approved drug label information, including warnings and precautions, drug interactions, and hundreds of full-color pill images. Every label in PDR includes information on dosages, side effects, and safety information, such as contraindications, pregnancy ratings, and interactions with other drugs, food, or alcohol. Data on clinical trials is also included.