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4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Incredibly interesting book that was both too long and too short ... the actual text took up almost exactly half the book (at least according to my Kindle) while the rest was notes and index. I wonder if it would look the same in a physical volume, or if the notes/index are set in a much smaller font!
And too long only in the sense that it contained so very much information that when we at last landed upon the conclusion, I was ready for it to be over, but it continued into an epilogue on climate change which was less interesting—sort of like when the cruise ship docks at your home port but there's an hour to go before you can disembark.
But the fascinating bits, which are 98% of the book (or 49%, depending on your viewpoint) really are fascinating. Will I remember (random old-timey critter name) who lived in (some place I've never heard of) and had (such-and-such an adaptation)? No, I won't. I don't. But will I remember that grasses evolved after dinosaurs went extinct, and rapidly spread across the world because they were wind-pollinated and wind-disseminated? Heck, yes. Will I recall that the Mediterranean Sea periodically dries up, because if the Straits of Gibraltar are shut, the evaporation exceeds the re-filling by rivers such as the Nile? Yes, absolutely.
It's exactly what I wanted to read (which is so rare!) given the topic: it gives a compellingly-depicted account of what the world was like, in different areas, at different times in the far, far past, and somehow made the scale of time come to life for me quite vividly. Our human history, our civilizations, our incredibly old 10,000 year old cave paintings and such? Nothing, no time at all. Dinosaurs roamed the earth for longer than the time since the dinosaurs (I didn't realise that).
A very cool book, easy to read, especially one chapter per day, I wouldn't binge, it's just too full for that.
Note: I have written a novel (not yet published), so now I will suffer pangs of guilt every time I offer less than five stars. In my subjective opinion, the stars suggest:
(5* = one of my all-time favourites, 4* = really enjoyed it, 3* = readable but not thrilling, 2* = actually disappointing, and 1* = hated it. As a statistician I know most books are 3s, but I am biased in my selection and end up mostly with 4s, thank goodness.)
And too long only in the sense that it contained so very much information that when we at last landed upon the conclusion, I was ready for it to be over, but it continued into an epilogue on climate change which was less interesting—sort of like when the cruise ship docks at your home port but there's an hour to go before you can disembark.
But the fascinating bits, which are 98% of the book (or 49%, depending on your viewpoint) really are fascinating. Will I remember (random old-timey critter name) who lived in (some place I've never heard of) and had (such-and-such an adaptation)? No, I won't. I don't. But will I remember that grasses evolved after dinosaurs went extinct, and rapidly spread across the world because they were wind-pollinated and wind-disseminated? Heck, yes. Will I recall that the Mediterranean Sea periodically dries up, because if the Straits of Gibraltar are shut, the evaporation exceeds the re-filling by rivers such as the Nile? Yes, absolutely.
It's exactly what I wanted to read (which is so rare!) given the topic: it gives a compellingly-depicted account of what the world was like, in different areas, at different times in the far, far past, and somehow made the scale of time come to life for me quite vividly. Our human history, our civilizations, our incredibly old 10,000 year old cave paintings and such? Nothing, no time at all. Dinosaurs roamed the earth for longer than the time since the dinosaurs (I didn't realise that).
A very cool book, easy to read, especially one chapter per day, I wouldn't binge, it's just too full for that.
Note: I have written a novel (not yet published), so now I will suffer pangs of guilt every time I offer less than five stars. In my subjective opinion, the stars suggest:
(5* = one of my all-time favourites, 4* = really enjoyed it, 3* = readable but not thrilling, 2* = actually disappointing, and 1* = hated it. As a statistician I know most books are 3s, but I am biased in my selection and end up mostly with 4s, thank goodness.)
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
informative
inspiring
sad
slow-paced
informative
medium-paced
Although this covers an impressive span of time periods in earth's history, it still read too much like a textbook for me to enjoy it as anything more than that.
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
informative
slow-paced
Well, wow. This is paleontology, geology, geography, biology, chemistry, physics, meteorology, history and, crucially, climate science. It's so well written - Halliday clearly explains complex science and evokes past environments with an almost poetic touch. We come to understand the ecologies that have been and gone, the mass extinctions and evolutions that followed.
And then the Epilogue. Here, Halliday brings it all home, shows us where we are now in the cycle of extinction and asks whether we are willing to do what we can to mitigate and survive the changes that are coming.
And then the Epilogue. Here, Halliday brings it all home, shows us where we are now in the cycle of extinction and asks whether we are willing to do what we can to mitigate and survive the changes that are coming.
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced