Lewis Thomas
Penguin
1978
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This collection of brilliant essays first appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine, and was published as a book 40 years ago. They are not obviously written from a religious perspective, but they convey a sense of awe, delight, and surprise both about the nature of the physical world, particularly the nature of biological life, and perhaps reflect as well as anything the attitude of astonished thankfulness that informs the best science. They range in topic from Termites to Bach to the roots of language, and each can be read in a few minutes. Here are some to sample: ‘The Lives of a Cell’; ‘An Earnest Proposal’; ‘Ceti’; ‘Natural Man’; ‘On Various Words’; ‘Living Language’; ‘The World’s Biggest Membrane’.
