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Read Harder Challenge Plans: 2016
By Book Riot · 284 posts · 3115 views
By Book Riot · 284 posts · 3115 views
last updated Dec 19, 2017 10:57AM
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By Book Riot · 9 posts · 3392 views
last updated Jan 19, 2016 06:00AM
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What Members Thought
Gave up. Too much science, not enough anecdote for this reader.
This starts off strong, and I was laughing out loud at his description of the periodic table hanging in classrooms. But it did get a bit dull after that. My attention did not always stay focused. But this is almost like a collection of essays, so it’s not always necessary to know what was just explained in order to fully appreciate the next.
Overall, I’d say this was a good book on the history of scientific discoveries, aimed at the layperson, with some humor, but it wasn’t as awesome as I expect ...more
Overall, I’d say this was a good book on the history of scientific discoveries, aimed at the layperson, with some humor, but it wasn’t as awesome as I expect ...more
There are some interesting stories in here, but Kean's writing style is too obnoxious for me. He misuses the word theory, which just drives me up a wall. He also uses really bizarre metaphors that just obfuscate instead of clarify. Eating elephants? Eating a mint in a dark closet? I found myself saying "what?" An awful lot.
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Some parts of it went over my head, so it would have been nice to read the print version so I could have skimmed through those parts. But overall, it was very readable and interesting. The audio version is nicely done, clearly read.
It's such a good title, I had such high hopes! Unfortunately it was not written for the masses, and outside of a few good stories it was terribly dry. You have to have a pretty good grasp of physics and chemistry to really follow along, and let's face it, it's easy to drift off when you think you are reading a textbook. Perhaps if they pulled some of the better stories into an article or something it would be better.
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Jul 02, 2010
akaellen
marked it as to-read
Jul 19, 2010
Stacey
marked it as to-read
Nov 05, 2010
Gwennie
marked it as to-read
Dec 11, 2010
Chris Stanford
marked it as to-read
Feb 06, 2011
Krystal
marked it as tbr-nonfiction
Jun 27, 2011
Arianna
marked it as to-read
Sep 06, 2011
superawesomekt
marked it as bibliocurious
Oct 30, 2011
Loretta
marked it as to-read
Jan 21, 2012
Julianne Dunn
marked it as to-read
Jul 05, 2012
Julie
marked it as to-read
Dec 19, 2012
Stephanie Williams
marked it as to-read
Dec 25, 2012
alana
marked it as to-read
Apr 01, 2018
Heather
marked it as to-read
Oct 02, 2019
Risa
marked it as to-read
Jan 07, 2020
Anne Clair
marked it as to-read
