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4.27 AVERAGE
4.27 AVERAGE
Tremendous: witty, entertaining, richly informative, even moving. I love to end my nonfiction year on such a high.
I can't lie, most of this flew so high above my head it's embedded in the ceiling. The parts I managed to wrap my head around were fascinating and very sobering.
informative
slow-paced
adventurous
challenging
funny
informative
fast-paced
adventurous
informative
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
I love learning about astrophysics. Katie's love for the subject is palpable throughout the entire book. I have been picking up and pausing this book for months, but I am happy I FINALLY finished it.
Is it weird to say there is comfort in knowing we are a spec of dust in a vast ocean?
Is it weird to say there is comfort in knowing we are a spec of dust in a vast ocean?
This feels like a harsh three stars, but that's all the stars I have to give for this one. I've read a few astronomy books and a few physics books, so I wouldn't say I have no frame of reference going into this one. I found Astrophysics for people in a Hurry to be way more elementary than I was expecting (though in fairness, DeGrasse Tyson DID say it was for people in a hurry), and Krauss's A Universe from Nothing lingered on the edge of comprehensibility for me throughout. I enjoyed them both well enough despite my problems with both, and yet, The End of Everything which sits well within my ability to comprehend on a certain level fell just the slightest bit flat for me.
To be sure, the author (Mack) strikes an engaging conversational tone with her prose and many of her pop culture references and analogies were well placed and received. And yet, much like Lomax and Nicholls' Locked in Time, I just never really got all that into it. It is frustrating, because I do believe that this is well written, the information is interesting, and I genuinely felt like I could see Mack's eyes sparkle as she explained her work to me - a wonderful feeling anytime it happens. But for some reason, this just did not connect with me.
To be sure, the author (Mack) strikes an engaging conversational tone with her prose and many of her pop culture references and analogies were well placed and received. And yet, much like Lomax and Nicholls' Locked in Time, I just never really got all that into it. It is frustrating, because I do believe that this is well written, the information is interesting, and I genuinely felt like I could see Mack's eyes sparkle as she explained her work to me - a wonderful feeling anytime it happens. But for some reason, this just did not connect with me.
funny
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
I learned about this book because of the new Crash Course podcast series with John Green talking with Dr. Mack, and I must say, I'm glad I picked this book up. It is thoroughly engaging, and very quirky (quark-y? sorry...) in a very endearing way. The weight of the eschatological implications are balanced by respectful, intelligent, and cutting humor. (Is the universe going to die by heat death? a massive crunch? a rapidly-expanding bubble that consumes the entire universe because the Higgs field quantum-tunneled to a state of higher equilibrium? We may not be entirely sure yet, but we can joke along the way!)
This book is also eminently interesting to me, as I have only really considered eschatology from a religious standpoint. I don't agree with speculations that the universe (or "world," however you define it -- locally or universally) needs to have an end to be endowed with any meaning in the first place; still, what we consider to be the (probable) end does contribute to the meaning that we make of our limited time here. So, a cyclical eschatology (where the end of our world will outline the beginning of a new universe), a Christian eschatology (redeemed existence), and a "heat-death" eschatology (where in a very lengthy amount of time all of the "heat", that is, particle/wave movement, in the universe will cease) will all favor different interpretations of what it means to live in the here and now. These will not always be the same, or they may overlap in very surprising ways depending on each person. Personally, I find it all very fascinating, and I loved the scientific romp all the same.
I would recommend this book to anyone with even a passing interest in cosmology, no scientific background knowledge required. It is a relatively quick read, and it is so accessible that, I think, it has something to give every reader.
This book is also eminently interesting to me, as I have only really considered eschatology from a religious standpoint. I don't agree with speculations that the universe (or "world," however you define it -- locally or universally) needs to have an end to be endowed with any meaning in the first place; still, what we consider to be the (probable) end does contribute to the meaning that we make of our limited time here. So, a cyclical eschatology (where the end of our world will outline the beginning of a new universe), a Christian eschatology (redeemed existence), and a "heat-death" eschatology (where in a very lengthy amount of time all of the "heat", that is, particle/wave movement, in the universe will cease) will all favor different interpretations of what it means to live in the here and now. These will not always be the same, or they may overlap in very surprising ways depending on each person. Personally, I find it all very fascinating, and I loved the scientific romp all the same.
I would recommend this book to anyone with even a passing interest in cosmology, no scientific background knowledge required. It is a relatively quick read, and it is so accessible that, I think, it has something to give every reader.