Scan barcode
questingnotcoasting's review against another edition
challenging
informative
fast-paced
2.5
This was an impulse buy because it was cheap and I liked the art style. Unfortunately that was all I liked about it in the end. I don't know if it was just too clever for me but I felt like I didn't understand anything that it was trying to say. I felt like it had quite an experimental style and it didn't feel very cohesive to me.
lydbom's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
The graphics are absolutely stunning! It corresponds with the literature so well!! I wish I could read it all over again!
annoyedhumanoid's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
lainy122's review against another edition
3.0
"The Earth is a big place when measured out in human footsteps."
This was a very cool concept, funky art. And I think I actually might have learned something.
Also? A lot of very good quotes.
"Human understanding of the world has come from two often conflicting directions...thinking about how things work...and observing how things work."
This was a very cool concept, funky art. And I think I actually might have learned something.
Also? A lot of very good quotes.
"Human understanding of the world has come from two often conflicting directions...thinking about how things work...and observing how things work."
thecommonswings's review against another edition
5.0
I am cursed with an innate lack of curiosity about how anything works: those childhood moments when scientists talk about taking apart machines to see how they work? For me I took them apart because I wondered how they looked and if I could use them in a game or something. I was interested not in how things were made or worked but what I could use them for. As such science was, except for one brief year, a hell for me because I was being taught the building blocks of how things work which I had precisely no interest in: it was like being talked at in a foreign language and to say I did badly in it is a colossal understatement
The one year I did do well in it is because I had a very clever teacher, Mr Jolliffe. What he did was provide you with two thirds of a scientific discovery and then ask you to work out the missing third from that evidence - he wasn’t just talking at you, but finding a way for you to see the science in a new and interesting way. And for a year it worked, until he got replaced by people who talked at you which absolutely failed
But that glimmer of interest is all through this, a cannily written and beautifully illustrated book that weaves decades and centuries and millennia of science, history and philosophy together into one whole. I can’t pretend I follow it all but I follow it far better than I would follow any one else doing much the same stuff. It’s a brilliant book because it’s enthusiastic but never overly didactic. You are swept along by the ideas and grand sweep of history
One of the ways I tried to find interest in science was through reading Kate Charlesworth’s Cartoon History of Time, a beautiful but puzzling book. I kept taking it to my school friend David to explain to me. He loved the book and enthused wildly about it and I suspect he would feel much the same about this. He’s now a very well regarded academic in the philosophy of science and although I have tried to watch several of his lectures online it all goes over my head. But I imagine to those who know it must be like this book. A beautiful achievement
The one year I did do well in it is because I had a very clever teacher, Mr Jolliffe. What he did was provide you with two thirds of a scientific discovery and then ask you to work out the missing third from that evidence - he wasn’t just talking at you, but finding a way for you to see the science in a new and interesting way. And for a year it worked, until he got replaced by people who talked at you which absolutely failed
But that glimmer of interest is all through this, a cannily written and beautifully illustrated book that weaves decades and centuries and millennia of science, history and philosophy together into one whole. I can’t pretend I follow it all but I follow it far better than I would follow any one else doing much the same stuff. It’s a brilliant book because it’s enthusiastic but never overly didactic. You are swept along by the ideas and grand sweep of history
One of the ways I tried to find interest in science was through reading Kate Charlesworth’s Cartoon History of Time, a beautiful but puzzling book. I kept taking it to my school friend David to explain to me. He loved the book and enthused wildly about it and I suspect he would feel much the same about this. He’s now a very well regarded academic in the philosophy of science and although I have tried to watch several of his lectures online it all goes over my head. But I imagine to those who know it must be like this book. A beautiful achievement
happysami's review against another edition
4.0
The striking artwork and abstract storytelling in this book is beautiful!! It looks amazing on my shelf and I'm sure I'll come back to it!
However, I did feel it focused a lot on 20th century science, and rushed through everything before that. I would have liked to see more aspects of earlier history such as the invention of papyrus or the beginnings of numbers and mathematics.
However, I did feel it focused a lot on 20th century science, and rushed through everything before that. I would have liked to see more aspects of earlier history such as the invention of papyrus or the beginnings of numbers and mathematics.
pierreikonnikov's review against another edition
5.0
An outstanding graphic novel. Telling a story somewhere between science, mythology, literature, and art, this is an easy read with endless wisdom within it. We follow the Universe as she watches the growth and expanse of human civilisation, from the earliest stories told in caves to the future exploration of Mars, weaving the tale of what makes us human. Its sincerity is well-balanced with a slightly cartoony art style that alleviates but does not conceal the depth and intelligence.
munyapenny's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.5