Sunday, February 24, 2019

Books read in 2019: No. 14 -- A Brief History of Time

by Stephen W. Hawking

Started: Feb. 20
Finished: Feb. 24

Notes: I've been reading so much science fiction of late, I thought I'd dip into some actual science, an area in which I've not read nearly enough.

Mini review: This was written for the laymen, which proves how stupid I am because I almost immediately found much of it over my head. Oh, I can understand well enough the material related to the universe at large, but it's the other end, what one might call the micro-world, which I simply can't comprehend. I can get things down to atoms and electrons and protons, but once quarks come up, I'm lost and can't wrap my head around it. Still, this was a solid book with solid writing, and after doing some research online, was pleased to discover this book still stands up pretty well today more than 30 years after it was published. Obviously there have been some scientific breakthroughs since then, but the basics of this book is still fairly strong. Also, I'd like to add that I was fortunate enough to pick up a first edition of this book; I know it was a first edition because of the introduction by Carl Sagan, which was apparently pulled in later editions of the book.

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