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- KindleJanuary 6
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A bunch of folks have asked me why there isn't a Kindle edition of Invention of Air; I've inquired about this, and apparently one is coming imminently. I will post news of its arrival as soon as it's out.
- The Invention Of Air TourJanuary 5
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We've had these in the sidebar for a while, but I wanted to post the full Invention of Air tour dates with all the venue information in the blog itself, for those of you reading via RSS. These should be a lot of fun -- I've been tinkering with the talk now for a week or two, and have got it into a pretty good place I think. And there's so much to discuss about the book, so the Q&A should be fun as well...
The full list is included after the jump, but this week's headlines: D.C. tonight, Tyson's Corner VA tomorrow night; Tribeca on Wednesday; Boston on Thursday, and Philly Friday night.
Washington, DC
Monday, January 5, 7 PM
Politics & Prose
5015 Connecticut Ave NW
Washington, DC 20008
202-364-1919
Washington, DC
Tuesday, January 6, 7:30 PM
Borders Tyson’s Corner
8027 Leesburg Pike, Suite 100
Vienna, VA 22182
703-556-7766
- Invention RoundupJanuary 4
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Great morning for Invention of Air reviews. This week's Newsweek examines the case for Priestley as a "lost Founding Father" and comes away convinced by the book's argument. The Dallas Morning News says that the book gives "plenty of life" to the full scope of Priestley career, beyond his contested oxygen discovery. Simon Goldie has a very flattering blog review of the book that tries to put Invention in the context of my other books, which is always fun to see. Nick Gillespie, editor of Reason, writes a lovely review for the New York Post, that ends with lines that I think capture exactly why I think the story is so relevant now:
We live in troubling times, filled with signs of a great economic apocalypse, politicized science on topics from birth control to climate change and religious zealots who kill innocents rather than live peacefully with them. This is exactly the moment to learn from Priestley, who survived riots, threats of prosecution and other hardships and yet never doubted that "the world was headed naturally toward an increase in liberty and understanding." Ironically, "The I
- The Book Is Really OutJanuary 2
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Today was an interesting day. One of many to come in the next month, I bet.
I titled the last post "The Book Is Out" but today feels like the first day where it's really been out. I had a great time with Ira at Science Friday: excellent questions, and fun to talk about the book to such a vast, science-smart audience....
Then tonight I got sent a link -- via Google Alerts -- to the Times review running tomorrow. It pokes some fun at my propensity for making connections -- I get dinged for having an "overintellectualized imagination" -- but then ends with a long summary of Priestley's life that says some nice things about the more traditional biographical side of the book. So as I said on Twitter, no complaints here! They took it seriously and gave it a lot of ink. You can't ask for more.
Ever since I finished the first half the book, I've said that the criticisms of the book are going to come from readers who don't want to be distracted from the main story -- for understandable reasons. (It's a great story, even without me messing with it.) The ratio of connections-to-plot was a big discussion at the kitchen cabinet edit meetings with my wife, in fact. I like history books with more traditional narratives too, but for whatever reason, I'm less interested in writing them.
So the real question for me i
- Live InventionJanuary 1
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The Invention of Air tour kicks off in earnest this week, with a live interview on NPR's Science Friday, airing sometime after 3 PM EST tomorrow, Jan. 2. I'll be reading at Sunny's in Red Hook on Sunday afternoon; then Politics and Prose in DC Monday night, followed by the Tyson's Corner VA Borders on Tuesday. I'll post the full schedule in the next few days but for now they're all listed in the sidebar on the blog. Hope to see many of you on the road in the coming weeks. Happy new year!