I tried to span out my interests a little bit. I can't find any more books on the shelf regarding Cosmology so I grabbed Origin of the Species. First of all, were there no such things as run-on sentences in the 1800's? By the time I get to the end of the sentence, I forgot what the premise was. I did learn a few interesting tidbits on birds, but this is going to be a long read. Does anyone have any suggestions for Cosmology themed books? Maybe I am a bit add or something but I can't read one book at a time. I loose interest. One of the books I just finished was Billions and Billions by Carl Sagan. Let me tell you guys, I finished it while I was waiting for my oil change and there I sat, in the waiting room, balling my eyes out.
Anyway, I also didn't realize the contradiction between the two books I bought until I was at the counter. It was quite humorous though, Origin of the Species by Charles Darwin and Culture Warrior by Bill O'Rielly (Not for me!!).Even the Cashier had to laugh. It would only have been topped if I bought Godless.

To avoid books I have already read ;
Demon Haunted World
Cosmos
Billions and Billions
The Universe in a Nutshell
A Brief History of Time
Stephen Hawking's Universe
Einstein's Relativity
Idiots Guide to Theories of the Universe
Physics Made Simple

Any other suggestions that would follow any of these patterns would be greatly appreciated

Brian Greene: The Elegant Universe and The Fabric Of The Cosmos.
Timothy Ferris: The Whole Shebang.
I haven't read Simon Singh's Big Bang yet (it's next on the pile) but I've heard very good things about it.

Have a look at A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. I really enjoy his writing style.

Since you seem to like physics stuff, you might check out God's Equation too. It's about Einstein and what he was thinking when working on relativity, but not so much about the theory itself.

yeah. I picked up a college textbook from the 1950's on the subject of communism and it's the same way. It seems that our culture has really changed significantly, and nobody noticed.

I've certainly noticed. Jules Verne is one of my favorite authors, and he is quite guilty of run-on-ery. I think that the early dimestore novels and such were partly responsable for the change...trying to make literature more accessable to the average person. Reading was no longer for the high-cultured and well schooled, but for the every day joe also.

...don't get mad and think i'm saying anyone's dumb if run-on sentances give you trouble reading...they give everyone trouble. that's why teachers today nearly stone you if you turn in a paper with too many run-ons. Its just, I think earlier than the early 1900's, authors weren't concerned with ease of reading.

But what do i know, i'm still a hack when it comes to authorship

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.

Theory of Zombie Relativity:
1) Everyone Else is a Zombie relative to You
2) Whether or not it matters is related to the inverse square of the distance between their teeth and your brain
(Quoted from Demigrog)

They're very seldom run-ons. It's just that people today don't know how to use semicolons and don't understand the compound-complex sentence.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Seriously, there aren't many punctuation marks of any kind other than Periods, question marks, and the very rare comma.

Since you seem to like physics stuff, you might check out God's Equation too. It's about Einstein and what he was thinking when working on relativity, but not so much about the theory itself.

I love the physics stuff. The more I read about it, the more magical, for lack of a better term, the world seems.

Thank you for all the suggestions too, I will have to order them as the science section of the local book store has such a pathetically small selection. Three rows of cookbooks, two rows for pets, and one tiny, three shelf cubical for science. Then again, this is Florida. If we can't even figure out voting machines how are we expected to understand molecular science...?

Clearly, we are reading different books of the era.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

You might like to see if "The Biology of Belief" [2005], 202 pages, by cell biologist Bruce Lipton can hold your interest.