Hi everyone, Sorry if the method of deciding and ordering library books on cosmology was a little confusing - I'm still learning about how things work here, so I take any blame which is due. A bunch of books has been ordered, and most have arrived, and Karolina and I will try to make up a list of these to help guide students and anyone else interested.
Anyway, I just saw that a book has come out by one of the main people in observational cosmic topology work (Janna Levin):
http://pup.princeton.edu/titles/7324.html
How the Universe Got Its Spots: Diary of a Finite Time in a Finite Space Janna Levin Cloth | 2002 | $22.95 / ?15.95 | ISBN: 0-691-09657-0 224 pp. | 6 x 9 | 68 line illus.
Why I think we should buy this:
* The level of difficulty is for the common reader, but I think this should be a good motivational book, and good for bringing students up to "state-of-the-art" cosmology.
* Also, most of the books we have say almost nothing on the global shape of the Universe.
* There also seems to be a selection effect in the cosmology books we have so far: 50% of the population is unrepresented, and since the number of introductory cosmology books we have is something like a dozen or so, having zero introductory books by women is about 3-4 sigma inconsistent with unbiased selection.
Could anyone with comments please provide them within a week or so?
This way, there would be a chance of having the book not too long after students start in October-ish...
Cze�� Boud