#Long Overdue Thanks
9 messages in this thread
John,
Thanks so much for your reply to my "fossil ID'ing" query. I have had a rotten
time lately with work and all, and have not been able to respond any sooner.
Please accept my humble apology for not having responded sooner.
I have frequently heard that I need to get beyond Simon and Schuster et al and
into the library of my local university. Unfortunately, I haven't had any more
time to do that lately either <g>!.
What is your primary area of interest regarding fossils? I became interested
in fossils as a caver and cave diver–what types of fossils you find in a cave
can, as you knw, tell you an awful lot about the conditions under which a cave
or section of cave wsa formed. I'm quite the newcomer, but am really eager to
learn more. Do you know of any reall good, basic paleontology books, perhaps
textbooks used in college? I graduated with a Masters in English–don't
require too many science courses for that, so I missed a lot of basic stuff.
Look forward to hearing from you. Thanks for your time,
Shannon
Michael,
Thanks so much for your response to my questions about fossil id'ing. I'm
sorry it has taken me so long to respond, but I do really appreciate your
response.
The problems that have keep me from being able to respond and thank you for
your comments has also kept me out of the libraries and hence unable to pick up
the listng of your personal library. Today, however, I will pick up that file
and look forward to persuing it. Be assured that if you don't mind hearing
from me again, I may contact you with queries for more specific info on books
you really like or dislike.
Please once again accept my apologies. My mother really did raise me better…
Shannon
I'm still building a good library of paleo books. If you do have a large
university near you, find the paleontologists and examine their bookshelves,
both in the library and in their offices. I've got a stack of
advanced-amateur-type books that I picked up at used bookstores. I also
checked my local department of natural resources and they had a number of very
inexpensive maps and publications relating to bedrock and fossils in this area.
If you find any especially nice books, please tell us about them!
John,
If I find any great books, I'll be sure to post about them. But at the moment
I'm still searching for good ones, although I sent away for a few catalogs in
the back of Rock and Gem–hope to get some good leads that way!
Shannon
John – would you mind uploading a bibliography of your library? I would like
to compare it against my bibliography (PalLib.txt in the Libraries).
Michael
I'll try to remember to do that! I don't think I have anything spectacular…
the most exotic being a microfilm report of the Devonian in Wisconsin, and that
techniques book from U of Tenn, the one I sent you. My local library has an
old edition of an invertebrate paleontology book that looks nice as a
reference, including lots of line drawings as well as technical background. As
I said, it's old, misclassifying the wacky Burgess fossils, but I guess that'll
be the case for any paleo book published before the mid-70s, right? And
there's a flashy, coffee-table-esque Trilobite book I've seen, for about $50.
(The invert. paleo book mentioned above was published by McGraw-Hill, it might
be a classic of some kind…)
I recently self-published a book called "History of the Earth" which is
supposed to be an intelligent layman's tour of historical geology — it's in
the format of a 366-day calendar, starting with the origin of the earth on Jan
1 and ending with early man on Dec. 31. It isnt really a historical geology
text, but it has a lot of illustrations (taken from antique (1800s-early 1900s)
engravings by many of the paleontologists describing the fossils) including
quite a few fossils. It may not be quite what you're interested in, but let me
know if you'd like more information.
Regards, Dick Gibson
Dick,
Yes, I'd love more info on the calendar/book–where might I find it? Sounds
quite interesting. How long did it take you to complete, from conception to
production? As a bit of a writer myself, I'd love to hear about the process!
talk to you soon,
Shannon
Shannon,
"conception" of the book was about 2 years ago, then when I finally got
motivated last winter, it took a bit less than 4 months of more or less 8-hour
days to produce the original, and printing and binding took maybe a month or
so.
e-mail me your address and I'll send you a flyer. Thanks for your interest!!
Regards, Dick