#weeklywednesdaywisdom: A Primate's Memoir

First years!

From Sciencenovels.wordpress.com

Welcome to your second installment of #weeklywednesdaywisdom. Glad you're reading this. Today's topic: A Primate's Memoir. Or as I heard some of you call it, "the baboon book." Yes, that lovely book we mailed to you at the beginning of June. For those of you who might be a little out of the loop, every year Coe picks a summer reading for the incoming first-years. They read the book over the summer and participate in a discussion during orientation week. FYS professors have the option of integrating the book into their course material or just leaving it at the book discussion. Along with reading the book, Coe tries to bring either the author or someone related to the theme of the book to campus in September to talk to the first-years. This year we are lucky enough to have the author of A Primate's Memoir, Robert Sapolsky come to campus. Sapolsky is a professor at Stanford and has spent over 30 years in Africa studying baboons and stress. I think he will be a fascinating visitor.

I remember receiving my common reading, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. As an avid reader, I was really excited, so excited I read the book within the first seven days of receiving my copy. But I understand that this book might not be what you were looking forward to during your summer.

Never fear, A Primate's Memoir is really good. I actually was part of the committee to chose the book and I wouldn't have chosen it if I didn't think it was worth your time. One of the things that drew the committee to the book was Robert Sapolsky's voice. He's funny. If you don't laugh out loud at some point, then you're not reading the book. Because it's amusing. Sapolsky goes through his adventures in Kenya, researching baboons and adventuring through Kenya, Sudan, Uganda, and Rwanda. You learn a lot -- about baboons, about Africa, and about how Sapolsky really grew up by living in the bush.

So this is my advice: READ IT. Even if it's a chapter at a time. Sit down, twenty minutes. Read a little. Come back the next day. Or the day after that. If you start now, you'll have plenty of time to finish it before the end of August rolls around. And, I'm pretty sure that a lovely reading guide on the book will appear within the next week or so. Remember, a reading guide doesn't mean you can skimp out on reading the actual book, it just means that there is something to help you through the book. Use it if it's useful.

Venture out into Kenya and see what you can find. I can't wait to hear what you guys think of it.

#baboonswag
#laughingoutloud
#summerbookworms