Earth-related books for the holidays

Earth to the Librarian's First Annual Earth Science Holiday Book List

In no particular order, here are some recent and interesting, somewhat earth-related book recommendations:

• Simon Winchester. A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906. Harper Collins.
• Philip Fradkin. The Great Earthquake and Firestorms of 1906: How San Francisco Nearly Destroyed Itself. University of California Press.
• Jared Diamond. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive. Viking.
• Timothy Egan. The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl. Houghton Mifflin.
• Kenneth Deffeyes. Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert's Peak. Hill and Wang.
• Richard Fortey. Earth: An Intimate History. Vintage.
• Jacques Leslie. Deep Water: The Epic Struggle Over Dams, Displaced People, and the Environment. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
• Craig Colton. An Unnatural Metropolis: Wresting New Orleans From Nature. Louisiana State University Press.
• Henry Darcy. The Public Fountains of the City of Dijon. Kendall/Hunt.
• Richard Misrach. Chronologies. Fraenkel Gallery. Forthcoming.
  

Beyond Books:

If those punny "Reunite Gondwanaland" style geologist t-shirts appeal to you, check out Geographics

And for other gifts for your favorite science geek:
Holiday Gift Ideas (from Arts & Sciences Library, University of Buffalo)

"Live" from AGU

Unfortunately, the ridiculously slow wireless connection at the Moscone Center prevents me from blogging *live* from AGU 2005, but this is a close second. I'm not sure how to describe what happens when over 10,000 geophysicists and friends gather in one place, but it is quite a spectacle. Since this is only day 2, there will be more to say, but here are a few images to give a sense of the scene.
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Voyage au centre de la terre

If you're more Sci-Fi than Geo-Sci, you might like to know that 2005 marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Jules Verne (Feb. 8, 1828-Mar. 24, 2005).

I recommend taking your own literary Journey to the Center of the Earth if you haven't already. Verne's ideas about the composition of the Earth may have been discredited, but the vibe is entirely correct.

On a less geologic note, I've come upon another of Verne's works, his lost manuscript, Paris in the Twentieth Century, written in 1863 but only recently published (1996). In this case, many of Verne's ideas have proven true--fax machines! calculators! high-speed trains! One reviewer explains:
Verne's vision of Paris in 1960 is a troubling one indeed; the wonders of technology have worked miracles on earth, yet humanity's savior has proceeded to become its curse. It's an action-oriented society, one run with great economy and efficiency. War has been made extinct because, once war progressed to the point that machines and not men were fighting each other, the whole thing seemed ridiculous. Life itself has become scientific, and in the process the society has given up its own humanity. There is no place for an idealistic dreamer such as Michel Dufrenoy in this world where the arts and literature have been completely forgotten; popular literature now consists of books such as The Lubrication of Driveshafts.

A cautionary tale...

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Sources:
Earth Core
Amazon Review of Paris...