Play Book Tag discussion

Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 - Simon Winchester

4 stars

Krakatoa is the story of the deadliest volcanic explosion in recorded history. On August 27, 1883, the volcano erupted with an explosion that was heard thousands of miles away. It triggered a tsunami and released dust into the atmosphere that affected weather worldwide. The explosion was so powerful that nothing was left of the volcano. The disaster was one of the first that was able to be reported quickly worldwide, thanks to improvement in telegraph lines. It also triggered unrest with local islamic extremists targeting the ruling Dutch colonizers with violence.

This was an interesting read for me. Although I have heard of Krakatoa, I really did not know much about the volcano or the disaster that resulted from its eruption. Winchester went into great detail about the historical and scientific contexts of the event. He often took the reader on tangents into topics somewhat related to the event. For example he gave the background on the Alfred Wallace/Charles Darwin controversy because Wallace discovered the Wallace line which was important in the development of plate tectonics which can be used to explain why volcanoes such as Krakatoa erupts. If you don't mind the meandering details there is a lot of interesting information. If you just want him to get to the point of the disaster, it may be annoying. Overall, I enjoyed it. I learned a lot about volcanoes and history and I enjoyed the exploration of the science behind how the island is being reborn and repopulated by nature.

Cora, after I read this I found this snippet in another persons review "extraneous supporting data that was collected and explained, and that can be long-winded, meandering and at times tedious. ". LoL, I did enjoy this book though, but it did get long winded at times.

I listened to the audio, which Winchester narrates himself. 3.5*** from me.