Need Book Recommendations for a Short Hospital Stay

I am having a c-section on Wednesday, which with my doctor/hospital means 5 days in the hospital. It’s my second child, so I know a lot of my time will be taken up with baby and visitors, but I did want to stock up my iPad with some books for the down times. You guys have helped me out with successful book recommendations for my husband so I thought I’d turn to you again for help.

I have a good selection of easy-read romance novels, but I was hoping to find some non fiction stuff as well. I’m a fan of Mary Roach type books, where the author takes one facet of the world/life (Roach has done sex, the afterlife, death and space travel. I’ve also read books about being tall, the history of the penis and fencing.) I don’t need it to be text book in-depth and would in fact prefer it isn’t. Just something well written, hopefully humorous and not too heavy, since I’ll be sleep deprived.

I’m also open to adventure/biography type stories. I just finished a book about the quest for the deepest cave in the world, which was really interesting and taught me far, FAR more about cave exploration then my claustrophobic self ever needed to know. Again, something on the lighter side, preferably with some humor to it.

I hope this gives a good idea of what I’m looking for. Feel free to ask for clarification. Thanks so much!

If you like Mary Roach’s style, you might like Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything or At Home.

If you like Mary Roach’s treatment of off-beat topics, you might like Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy by Melissa Millgrom.

I love Richard Preston and highly recommend The Wild Trees.

All these are fairly short, easy reads.

ETA: Congrats on the baby and good luck!

In the adventure/humor department, you might enjoy Tim Cahill. My favorites by him are Pass the Butterworms: Remote Journeys Oddly Rendered, Pecked To Death By Ducks and Road Fever.

Perhaps Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series of romance/comedy/mystery books? (One for the Money, Two for the Dough, Three to get Deadly et al)

For a hospital stay, I would suggest a collection of relatively short essays because of all the usual hospital interruptions. It’s hard to get into a deep novel when you have to set it down every fifteen minutes or so and then try to remember where you were.

I like James Gleick’s Faster from a few years back. One of those Scientific American quarterly collections would also be good for me or a collection of short stories.

I found The Disappearing Spoon to be a fun and interesting non-fiction read about the Elements/Periodic table, with a great mix of weird factoids concerning their discoveries, discovers, the Table and the elements themselves.

Bossypants by Tina Fey might be kind of appropriate.

Yes, these are good suggestions.

My favorite funny-yet-educational book is Joe Quirk’s Sperm are from Men, Eggs are from Women.

I’m quite fond of John Scalzi’s Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded. It’s a series of blog entries which are actually worth reading.

Stole my recommendation! I’m listening to the audiobook right now, featuring Miss Fey doing the reading. Outstanding.

Thanks so much! I picked up At Home and Still Life and will take a look at the others mentioned as well. cmyk I had looked at The Disappearing Spoon, but was afraid it might be too dry, I’ll take a second look at it now.

I am a big fan of Tina Fey, so I think I’ll grab Bossypants, though it may wait to read it till I’m out of the new parent haze.

Lynn Your Hate Mail. . . sounds like fun, and you’re probably right about finding short bites. Will take a look.

Keep 'em coming if you have 'em. I still have 48 hours before going in :eek: