My own cabin fever reading is non-scientific: I’m reading I Capture the Castle. Only a few pages in, but am really liking it so far.
Trying I Capture the Castle was a shot in the dark for me. I’m reading it because a sociologist whom I think is funny and insightful on Twitter said it was a “perfect book”. Which you’d think would be a pretty ineffective way to identify fiction I’d like to read. And it probably is inefficient–but I haven’t come up with a more efficient way. It’s funny that after all these years, I don’t have a better handle on my own tastes in fiction. I find it hard to find any common threads in the fiction I like, or that I don’t like. So I’ve decided to start trying lots of books, but then abandon them quickly if I’m not enjoying them.
I’ve been wallowing in Helen Macdonald’s *H is for Hawk*, having recently read its inspiration, *Goshawk*, by T.H. White. Melancholy and lyrical, a meditation on grief, falconry, and obsession. A sample passage: “And with the last bow pulled free, he reached inside, and amidst a whirring, chaotic clatter of wings and feet and talons and a high-pitched twittering and it’s all happening at once, the man pulls an enormous, *enormous* hawk out of the box and in a strange coincidence of world and deed a great flood of sunlight drenches us and everything is brilliance and fury. The hawk’s wings, barred and beating, the sharp fingers of her dark-tipped primaries cutting the air, her feathers raised like the scattered quills of a fretful porpentine. Two enormous eyes. My heart jumps sideways.”
And I can’t believe I hit “post” without adding my new book, “Charles Darwin’s Barnacle and David Bowie’s Spider” (https://scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com/charles-darwins-barnacle/). I mean, it feels weird to be suggesting my own book. But it was super fun to write, and I hope some folks will find needed distraction in reading it.
Dynamic Ecology 
Nourishment by Fred Provenza
My own cabin fever reading is non-scientific: I’m reading I Capture the Castle. Only a few pages in, but am really liking it so far.
Trying I Capture the Castle was a shot in the dark for me. I’m reading it because a sociologist whom I think is funny and insightful on Twitter said it was a “perfect book”. Which you’d think would be a pretty ineffective way to identify fiction I’d like to read. And it probably is inefficient–but I haven’t come up with a more efficient way. It’s funny that after all these years, I don’t have a better handle on my own tastes in fiction. I find it hard to find any common threads in the fiction I like, or that I don’t like. So I’ve decided to start trying lots of books, but then abandon them quickly if I’m not enjoying them.
I’ve been wallowing in Helen Macdonald’s *H is for Hawk*, having recently read its inspiration, *Goshawk*, by T.H. White. Melancholy and lyrical, a meditation on grief, falconry, and obsession. A sample passage: “And with the last bow pulled free, he reached inside, and amidst a whirring, chaotic clatter of wings and feet and talons and a high-pitched twittering and it’s all happening at once, the man pulls an enormous, *enormous* hawk out of the box and in a strange coincidence of world and deed a great flood of sunlight drenches us and everything is brilliance and fury. The hawk’s wings, barred and beating, the sharp fingers of her dark-tipped primaries cutting the air, her feathers raised like the scattered quills of a fretful porpentine. Two enormous eyes. My heart jumps sideways.”
Not for this reason, but I’ve been tracking the non-academic books I read this year, and maybe some folks will find recommendations there. Two formats: up-to-date Twitter thread begins here: https://twitter.com/StephenBHeard/status/1214228028219371520?s=20; and I’ll post occasional more fully developed lists on Scientist Sees Squirrel, first one here: https://scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com/2020/02/13/a-year-of-books-a-beginning/
And I can’t believe I hit “post” without adding my new book, “Charles Darwin’s Barnacle and David Bowie’s Spider” (https://scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com/charles-darwins-barnacle/). I mean, it feels weird to be suggesting my own book. But it was super fun to write, and I hope some folks will find needed distraction in reading it.