Thanks go to Constant Reader for the recommendation that became the first book in this post, which lead, in a twisty, turny sort of path, to the inspiration for the theme!

Do you know how best to describe a windy day? It's something that is very important, especially in a sail driven ship in days past. Captain Francis Beaufort of the Royal Navy took years to develop the graduated scale that would eventually carry his name. It was adopted by the Royal Navy in 1838. His scale, from 1 - 12, calm, to too strong for a canvas sail, is beautifully illustrated in Close to the Wind: the Beaufort Scale, by Peter Malone. Be sure to study the pictures carefully, especially the changes in the ocean surface.

Reading about Beaufort inspired me to look for other books about names given to scales .... Anders Celsius, Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, Charles Richter, etc. Alas, I was able to find just one, on Richter. (There are bios on the others, but they are part of a collection of World Biographies and available only for e-readers, which I am not using for my blog).

As with a few other biographies involving mathematics, I found some of Richter's Scale: Measure of an Earthquake. Measure of a Man., by Susan Elizabeth Hough to be both interesting and hard to understand :-/ I liked the parts about how he got into the study of earthquakes, and his life away from work, but struggled with how an earthquake is measured. Since this is probably mostly my problem, and wouldn't be for other readers, I am recommending this book. ;-)

With hopes for the 'scale names' post being dashed, my own, slightly warped mind, wandered off in this direction .... animal scales, musical scales, weight scales ... and this is the result!

It seems there were many things Garfield and I had in common. We didn't like mornings, Mondays were hard, and we both tended to the chubby. Garfield Tips the Scales, by Jim Davis, is a fun laugh out loud book about just such struggles.

Wow! There are a lot more 'scaly critters' in this area than I thought! Reptiles of Washington and Oregon, from the Seattle Audubon Society Trailside Series is a wonderful guide to that diversity. A typical field guide, there is a description of each reptile, their habitat, life cycle, and of course, some wonderful pictures.

For some fun, sparkly fish scales, take a look at The Rainbow Fish, by Marcus Pfister. I found the story to be, well, just so-so, but I have friends who tell me their kids loved it and it was read over and over. :-)

I found enough books on this odd turn for 'scale' that it is worthy of two posts!

Reading Hermit With Dog