Seems like everybody is putting together their “piles” of books and magazines for summer reading, and I’m no different. There’s a whole stack of materials sitting here, some from the recent AAS meeting I attended in Honolulu, and a few I bought and/or got to read on the plane as I was crossing the U.S. and half the Pacific along the way.

The first is Pluto and Beyond, a book that takes us under the dome at Lowell Observatory, where the dwarf planet Pluto was first discovered. It’s a great read and I particularly enjoyed the “behind the scenes” look at how astronomers associated with Lowell over the years behaved and were treated by their colleagues. Pluto is the obvious hook into the story of this observatory, and it’s a well-used one. Author Anne Minard spoke with modern-day Lowell scientists to get a handle on today’s Lowell and the future it faces. I really enjoyed this book and I recommend it to you, too.

Another one on the list, which I’m only partly through reading, is Field Notes from a Catastrophe, a factually based work on the effects of global climate change by Elizabeth Kolburt. She delves into actual climate effects on places and species on our planet, and talks to the scientists who have gathered massive databases on those effects. It’s a must-read for everybody, including those of you who don’t think there’s anything to worry about. It’s time to get yourself educated with some real facts derived from real experience. Our future is a reality-based endeavor.

Finally, on the “books I haven’t gotten to yet, but will this summer” is Al Gore’s new one called The Assault on Reason. I’m planning to read this one for the same reason I read (and have re-read) Carl Sagan’s Demon-Haunted World—because there is a crying need for clear-headed thinking in our world today, and these two books embody well the reasons why we need it (and the consquences if we don’t start doing some of it). As I read around the news media and blogosphere (left, middle, but particularly on the right-leaning end of the spectrum) I am appalled at instances of fuzzy-headed thinking, opinions based on superstitions (or worse), and blatant lack of critical thinking skills. So, I’m tooling up to learn how to combat that. And, hence the presence of Gore on my reading list. But, then again, I think he’s an admirable person and he’s done what few politicians bother to do: learn about science and its place in society. Hell, some politicians brag about how ignorant they are when it comes to science. Which I think is shameful.

That’s my reading list so far.