T-Minus Aaron (and counting...): 360

I have been pretty busy working these past few days, but that hasn't stopped me from getting a jump on my list:)

The first thing I did was go to the library, per Diana H.'s challenge. Whilst making ice creams at Tosci and listening to On Point with Tom Ashbrook, there was an interview of one Philip Hoare, author of The Whale: In Search of Giants of the Deep. This guy was EXCITED about whales, specifically Sperm Whales. And when I say excited, I mean every five seconds he was blurting out some new factoid about whales. Did you know that Sperm whales have the largest brain of any animal in history, every and for all time? Did you know that Blue Whale can talk to another Blue Whale from across the Atlantic?

I think I paid more attention to this broadcast than any others in recent memory on NPR (Europe is burning, New York is shaking, then flooding, Washington DC politics are burning...). It reminded me that my favorite book I ever read: Moby Dick (as taught by MIT's very own Wyn Kelley in American Literature 21L.006). As I recall, it was the only book I read cover to cover in that class. As a bio major and kid who once wanted to be a zoologist, it was a real treat. Herman Melville supposedly wrote the massive tome with an encyclopedia on his desk, including as many facts about cetology as he could... There were even whole chapters on the topic (which my classmates skipped and I particularly relished). What helped is that I found a very old and exquisitely illustrated version of the book in the MIT stacks.

That being said, before I even received her challenge, I had set out in my mind to pick up a copy (and read it). Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you books 1 and 2 of my library challenge!