Handy Physics Answer Book

Book: Handy Physics Answer Book
Author: P. Erik Gunderson
Where I read it: Bend Library, escaping from the goddamned juniper pollen that infiltrated every cubic inch of breathing space.

What I thought:
Again, I was going through this phase where I thought that if I read a bunch of popular science books geared towards the layman, that I might be considered smart. And sure, I actually learned some stuff, as I circumvented physics and chemistry in high school by volunteering to take a new curriculum that centered on human physiology and environmental studies. Basically I wanted to skip the safety goggles and the stinky Bunsen burner experiments in favor of field trips to national forests and tests where all you had to do was fill in the labels for the muscles of the body. Much easier than doing math. Whah ha!

So, there I was, reading, and understanding, this played down physics book. It was great. If only it would have been the text book in high school, I might not have opted out of the class.

And whenever people go by their middle name but leave the first initial on, like P. Erik Gunderson has done here with his fantastic book, well, I can't decide if it's totally hot or totally irritating. What does he think, that he's a character on Dynasty? Is his first name really that bad? What could it be? Something too banal/common for him to like, like Peter or Paul? Or is it a twisted example of his parent's latent sadism? Pumpernickle or Pumice? Hmmm. I thought about this long and hard, right after I absorbed the implications of an inclined plane working together with a pulley and a screw.