Scan barcode
richardwells's review
3.0
3.5 stars would be closer to it.
Acquainted with the Night is everything its subtitle implies. There's not much to be said about how night happens, it's clear night slips in as the earth rotates, and then slips out again, but even that gives the lie to night "fall," and was interesting in itself. There's more - the categories of night determined by navigational starlight, qualities of night by geographical consideration, but the meat of the book is what happens at night, and what happens in darkness. Mr. Dewdney examines every hour of the night according to the activities that generally take place, and then he takes a dive into the history of those activities. e.g., bordellos are most often visited at night, well here's a history of bordellos; UFO's are most often seen at night, here's a bit on UFO's; darkness has its creatures, and here's a bit on the qualities of darkness, where darkness lies, and what inhabits the darkness. For all this and more Acquainted with the Night is a good read. I'm putting it on the shelf right next to Dawn Awakening by Diane Ackerman - they make good companions.
Acquainted with the Night is everything its subtitle implies. There's not much to be said about how night happens, it's clear night slips in as the earth rotates, and then slips out again, but even that gives the lie to night "fall," and was interesting in itself. There's more - the categories of night determined by navigational starlight, qualities of night by geographical consideration, but the meat of the book is what happens at night, and what happens in darkness. Mr. Dewdney examines every hour of the night according to the activities that generally take place, and then he takes a dive into the history of those activities. e.g., bordellos are most often visited at night, well here's a history of bordellos; UFO's are most often seen at night, here's a bit on UFO's; darkness has its creatures, and here's a bit on the qualities of darkness, where darkness lies, and what inhabits the darkness. For all this and more Acquainted with the Night is a good read. I'm putting it on the shelf right next to Dawn Awakening by Diane Ackerman - they make good companions.
athenany's review against another edition
4.0
This book is hard to classify, but the writing is almost like poetry. Dewdney breaks down an imagined "ideal night" into 12 hours from 6 PM to 6 AM. He begins each hour with a lyrical description of what night is like at that hour in a city, a suburb and the countryside. Then he delves into something about the nighttime for the rest of the chapter. He discusses our fears of the night, why we sometimes suffer from insomnia, creativity at night, nocturnal animals... For those of us like myself who find themselves often struggling to fall asleep, or who find they are most creative and inspired at night, this book is a pleasure to read.
sternjon's review
4.0
An exhaustive and fun trip through all things related to the night -- great stuff...
More...