Dancing cats and fermented walrus

[wraithfodder]

 Yes, I read the oddest books. I'm back on my non-fiction book jag, having just completed Food, Sex and Salmonella: Why Our Food is Making Us Sick (Dr. David Waltner-Toews)  which has no sex in it, by the way, but plenty of information on food poisoning. I had no idea Canada had had so many outbreaks (this is a Canadian publication) and apparently fermented walrus and/or seal flippers can leave you with a nasty case of botulism! Meanwhile, back in the late 1950s, there was a horrid case of mercury poisoning in Japan, and the disease was commonly referred to as "dancing cat disease" as when cats got mercury poisoning, they were staggering, running or collapsing. Ouch. But, if you like non-fiction medical type books on the subject, I recommend it.

Now, onward to the HUGE color hardback called The Private Lives of Spiders (Paul Hillyard) which has big, gorgeous shots of various arachnids. I'll cease and desist here, for the arachnophobes who may be reading my LJ ;)

But shall also take a break to read a whole bunch of new Staragte Atlantis fanfic that's come out! :)

Comments

[abracah.livejournal.com]

er...um...ooookkkk? You do choose unusual reading material. But that is a good thing. I am currently reading a book called Stonehenge by Bernard Cornwall. It is a fiction book but, my gosh, there is a lot of dung smearing going on in this story. Maybe I should try some of your books....maybe.

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

Well, the food poisoning book I spotted in the library, ditto with the spider book (there are so few books out there on spiders, it's weird). Well, you'll think even odder when I mention Parasite Rex, a book on parasites, complete with icky photos. fascinating read though!

[abracah.livejournal.com]

I had enough bug reality when a bug fell out of the hair of one of my students today. Yech. She must have picked it up on the playground.

Although we did just read a non fiction book on how chocolate is made. We had chocolate day at school. It made me hungry just reading it.

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

Ooh, that sounds like a good book (how to make chocolate). I saw one of those Food Channel shows on how they made candy. Gah, you can put on 5 pounds just watching it! ;)

[shansgrl.livejournal.com]

Um, thanks for stopping there about the spider book. *shudders*

Also, SGA fic? Will you rec me any?

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

I was actually thinking about doing a rec post tonight on fiction I've read. Must put that on my 'to do' list!

[flingslass.livejournal.com]

I got two books from the library on Sunday.
1. Give A girl A Spanner - A practical guide to purchasing and looking after your first car *for obvious reasons :D*
2. 500 Simple Websites - Hints, tips and techniques *building a website is hard :(*

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

Let me know how that website goes. Yeah, I can do basic HTMLing but otherwise, am a slave to LJ ;)

[flingslass.livejournal.com]

It's for family stuff and it currently says This website is still under construction. It only took two hours to do :D

[ladyniko.livejournal.com]

Oh, there's a fic waiting to happen there - venomous spider bites. :-p

Been there, done that, have the scar from it still that is the leftover from my surgical experience cleaning out the infection.........

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

I got bit by a spider once - pretty sure it was one as it crawled up my pants and bit me on my thigh. you know when you see characters on tv yelping and jumping around and tearing off their pants? Yeah, it's true, that's what you do! Turned red for a day but then went down and so far, so good (it was a year ago).

[gatedialer.livejournal.com]

*adds books to growing list of books to read*

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

:)

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

The arachnophobes on your flist thank you.

I used to catalog rather a lot of children's books about bugs (kids love the gross stuff). I'll never forget the book with a tiny note on the title page that said, "The picture on the cover depicts a human head louse at 10,000 times its normal size." I was obsessively scratching my head for two days afterward.

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, those microscope shots of bugs can be creepy (but cool)