Why am I passionate about this?

I am a geologist who studies the origin and evolution of continents, which has required traveling the world to conduct fieldwork. Most of that experience has focused on Greenland and the wilderness fringe that bounds the inland ice cap. For weeks at a time, I and two colleagues, John Korstgård and Kai Sørensen, camp in some of the world’s greatest wilderness landscapes. Over years of such research, I have come to treasure the exquisite emotional power fieldwork in wilderness settings provides. It is the most direct way to begin the journey of understanding the place of humanity in the unfolding progress of cosmic evolution and was the impetus for my recent book.


I wrote

A Wilder Time: Notes from a Geologist at the Edge of the Greenland Ice

By William E. Glassley,

Book cover of A Wilder Time: Notes from a Geologist at the Edge of the Greenland Ice

What is my book about?

Conducting research in Greenland requires living in the wilderness for weeks at a time. The isolation from the rest of…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Log from the Sea of Cortez

William E. Glassley Why did I love this book?

Although best known for his extraordinary works of fiction, John Steinbeck’s sensitivity to place is most profoundly exposed in this daily account of his expedition to the Gulf of California with his good friend and marine biologist, Ed Ricketts. Their research on this remote body of water carried them into a world of deep insights about life, philosophy, and the nature of being that Steinbeck’s exquisite prose allows the reader to experience. Repeatedly, the important consequences of living in isolation from the rest of the world is beautifully conveyed. A lyrical unity of science, reflection, solitude, and the value of wilderness.

By John Steinbeck,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked The Log from the Sea of Cortez as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In 1940 Steinbeck sailed in a sardine boat with his great friend the marine biologist, Ed Ricketts, to collect marine invertebrates from the beaches of the Gulf of California. The expedition was described by the two men in SEA OF CORTEZ, published in 1941. The day-to-day story of the trip is told here in the Log, which combines science, philosophy and high-spirited adventure.


Book cover of The Fragile Edge: Diving and Other Adventures in the South Pacific

William E. Glassley Why did I love this book?

The relationship between ourselves and the sea is commonly constrained by beaches and tides. But Julia Whitty, deep-sea diver, and filmmaker opens the mind to the richness of deep waters through the scientific and soulful journeys she poetically shares in this book. Her time spent working in the South Pacific allows an expansion of our own experiences of the wild world. The delicate relationships of life’s many forms, from whales and sharks to rays and coral, contained within Earth’s liquid artistry, offers an opportunity to enrich our understanding of connections we seldom perceive but which, once acknowledged, expand the perception of life’s wealth.

By Julia Whitty,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Fragile Edge as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In The Fragile Edge, the documentary filmmaker and deep-sea diver Julia Whitty paints a mesmerizing, scientifically rich portrait of teeming coral reefs and sea life in the South Pacific. She takes us literally beneath the surface of the usual travel narrative, in an underwater equivalent of an African big-game safari. Hammerhead sharks rule a cascading chain of extraordinary creatures, from eagle rays to reef sharks, as the sound of courting humpback whales reverberates through the deep.
Inspiring for both armchair and expert divers, The Fragile Edge reveals how science can extend our understanding of unfathomable waters, opening our eyes to…


Book cover of Ice Rivers: A Story of Glaciers, Wilderness, and Humanity

William E. Glassley Why did I love this book?

Academic research into glacial processes seldom inspires deep reflection, but this fine book dramatically changes that narrative. Although Jemma Wadham does an outstanding job providing an introduction to the physical science of glaciology, her emotionally rich descriptions of many expeditions to study the melting ice around the world underscores why fieldwork matters. She frankly presents personal challenges, life-threatening health issues, and the arduous reality of living on the fringe of massive ice sheets and glaciers in a way that exposes the deeply human experience of academic scientific research in wild nature.

By Jemma Wadham,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Ice Rivers as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A passionate eyewitness account of the mysteries and looming demise of glaciers-and what their fate means for our shared future

The ice sheets and glaciers that cover one-tenth of Earth's land surface are in grave peril. High in the Alps, Andes, and Himalaya, once-indomitable glaciers are retreating, even dying. Meanwhile, in Antarctica, thinning glaciers may be unlocking vast quantities of methane stored for millions of years beneath the ice. In Ice Rivers, renowned glaciologist Jemma Wadham offers a searing personal account of glaciers and the rapidly unfolding crisis that they-and we-face.

Taking readers on a personal journey from Europe and…


Book cover of The Immense Journey

William E. Glassley Why did I love this book?

In this eloquent exploration, Loren Eiseley poetically describes his experiences conducting anthropological field research, and the reflections that work inspired. The Immense Journey is that rare blend of scientific curiosity, wonder, and wisdom that humbly explores the deep questions about human existence, inspiring rather than preaching. Although conveying with precision field observations and research endeavors, this book is, in reality, a literary masterpiece.

By Loren Eiseley,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Immense Journey as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Anthropologist and naturalist Loren Eiseley blends scientific knowledge and imaginative vision in this story of man.


Book cover of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

William E. Glassley Why did I love this book?

In the domain of nature writing, few books are as wondrous as Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. In a voice that is uniquely creative and with an eye that probes below immediate impressions, Annie Dillard delves into the purest world of emotional experience of place. Her prose invariably captivates and surprises. Although her field excursions were local her vision was vast. This book revolutionized my view of fieldwork and nature writing, teaching me that brilliant writing, ingeniously phrased, can transport the imagination to a new sense of the world.

By Annie Dillard,

Why should I read it?

9 authors picked Pilgrim at Tinker Creek as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek has continued to change people's lives for over thirty years. A passionate and poetic reflection on the mystery of creation with its beauty on the one hand and cruelty on the other, it has become a modern American literary classic in the tradition of Thoreau. Living in solitude in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Roanoke, Virginia, and observing the changing seasons, the flora and fauna, the author reflects on the nature of creation and of the God who set it in motion. Whether the images are cruel or lovely, the language is memorably beautiful and poetic,…


Explore my book 😀

A Wilder Time: Notes from a Geologist at the Edge of the Greenland Ice

By William E. Glassley,

Book cover of A Wilder Time: Notes from a Geologist at the Edge of the Greenland Ice

What is my book about?

Conducting research in Greenland requires living in the wilderness for weeks at a time. The isolation from the rest of the world gifts the researcher with such deep experiences of nature that they transform how one sees existence. In this book, I describe the emotional experiences that were the incessant background to the scientific enterprise we undertook. Expedition after expedition laid bare the power of the natural world when it is free of the superficial human impacts mankind invariably imposes on a place.

The book is an homage to wild places, the emotional truths they convey, and the importance of preserving what is left of them.

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From One Cell: A Journey into Life's Origins and the Future of Medicine

By Ben Stanger,

Book cover of From One Cell: A Journey into Life's Origins and the Future of Medicine

Ben Stanger Author Of From One Cell: A Journey into Life's Origins and the Future of Medicine

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a Harvard- and MIT-trained physician-scientist, and I am drawn to research problems that bridge the basic and the practical – how a better understanding of cells and tissues can inform new therapies for cancer and other diseases. As children, we are all scientists – mini-hypothesis generators trying to make sense of the world. I suppose I never outgrew that curiosity. My list of best science books credits writers who bring to life the excitement that comes from looking at the natural world in a new way, a spirit that I try to emulate in my own writing. I hope you enjoy these books as much as I have!

Ben's book list on science written by scientists

What is my book about?

Everybody knows that all animals—bats, bears, sharks, ponies, and people—start out as a single cell: the fertilized egg. But how does something no bigger than the period at the end of this sentence give rise to the remarkable complexity of each of these creatures?

FROM ONE CELL is a dive inside the cell and its evolutionary prerogatives to explain how these "endless forms most beautiful," as Charles Darwin called them, come about. Along the way, we learn about the scientific process, filled as it is with serendipity, as the story is told through the eyes of the scientists who informed…

From One Cell: A Journey into Life's Origins and the Future of Medicine

By Ben Stanger,

What is this book about?

Every animal on Earth begins life as a single cell. From this humble origin, the nascent creature embarks on a risky journey fraught with opportunities for disaster-yet with astounding regularity, it reaches its destination intact. From One Cell illuminates this epic transformation-still one of nature's most mysterious feats-to show where we all come from and where we're going.

Through the eyes of the scientists unraveling the secrets of development, we see how all the information needed to build a human fits into a fertilised egg, and how the trillions of cells that emerge know what to become and where to…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in coral reefs, nature, and human evolution?

Coral Reefs 22 books
Nature 158 books
Human Evolution 49 books