What's On My Nightstand: Astrophysics for People in a Hurry

Current "To Read" stack. I really like borrowing books from my local library.

This year as part of my New Year's theme of "Commitment," I want to commit to reading fifty books this year as part of the 2020 Goodreads challenge. It's also appropriate that I post today about what's on my nightstand since Day 3 of Emily Ley's 30 Day Simplicity challenge is "to put two things that make you happy on your nightstand."

I love reading, but in the past few years, I have found it difficult to find the time to read. Life was busy! I am trying to incorporate more reading into my routine with the Today Habit Tracker app and using audiobooks and wireless earphones. Audiobooks do count!  I use the Sony WF-1000XM3 wireless bluetooth headphones, to listen to the audiobooks (I LOVE them. Will do a more detailed review in a future post).

I had a little bit of time in the summer to do some reading, and really loved American Royals and The Royal We - I am a huge fan of the royal family and the fiction/alternate reality books are fun, especially when they are well written. I am definitely looking forward to the sequels to both of those books!

In fact, when I finished reading American Royals, I was so upset at the cliffhanger ending that I exclaimed aloud, "THAT'S IT! COME ON NOW!" and if the book weren't on my iPad, I might have flung it across the room.

I love reading books in which I get totally invested in, but also those that satisfy my curiosity - I love trivia and playing Jeopardy! is one of my favorite games.

Source: Amazon

I am currently listening to Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil DeGrasse Tyson through the Libby app. While it is not quite on my nightstand, I got about 2-3 hours of the book done while doing some cleaning on New Year's Eve.

What I like about Neil DeGrasse Tyson is that his goal is to make science attainable and accessible to everyone and does so in an entertaining and informative way; back when I lived in NYC, I went to his "Year in Review" at the Hayden Planetarium with my former Science co-teacher (fun fact: I interned in the Education Department for the Margaret Mead Film Festival at the American Museum of Natural History in college) and his talk about the events in the previous year and the science behind them was hilarious. In case you are interested, this is the list of his current events around the country.

I am not totally done yet, but as of now, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry is an enlightening read, but definitely one that you have to pay attention to. I just saw that there is a Young Reader's edition of the book, which is so awesome, and really supports the mission of making science accessible and entertaining to everyone.