Book Club: The Story of the Stars

I'm re-working the book club concept a bit; instead of posting updates and leading with discussion questions I'm just going to keep you all updated on what I'm reading (after the initial interest in book club there was very little discussion). People can read along and voice their thoughts as they wish, but it's less structured, less compulsion on anyone to participate. I do hope people will still be reading with me and voicing their thoughts on the books.
Anyway, this week I've been skimming through The Story of the Stars, an early Christmas present from a friend. It was published in 1903 and covers both the anecdotal "first experience of starlight at night," "stars in poetry," and scientific descriptions of stars and nebula. It's truly wonderful. I think I first became fascinated with the night sky by senior year in Hawaii--one notable reason being the stars were brighter there than I had ever experienced before and the more practical explanation of my chosen science class that year being Astronomy (also the first time I ever really was engaged during science class). We even had an evening field trip out to an old airfield where a group of amateur astronomers gathered with their (ridiculously expensive) telescopes. We were allowed to wander from telescope to telescope asking people what they were looking at and peeping through the lenses. The beauty of the Swan constellation (Cygnus) with the North America Nebula weaving through it is ingrained in my memory.
The next novel I'll be working my way through is The Picture of Dorian Gray.