Tuesday, June 30, 2015

The Magic Of Reality

The world of science has led to discoveries more wondrous than anything we can make up, and Richard Dawkins takes us through a number of examples in The Magic of Reality. This was an excellent book from which I learned a heck of a lot.

In general my track record with science books is rather weak. I manage to follow the author to a certain point, after which I get a little lost. My confusion leads to my enjoyment level dropping, which makes it hard to stay motivated to keep following along. I have experienced this with the biographies of Einstein, Farraday, and in books by Stephen Hawking. I had no such problem with this book. The concepts are explained very clearly, so that even a dummy like me could understand them.

Of course, the trade-off is that some things were discussed that were rather basic such that I already knew them. One example is how evolution works, which, except for the most religious among you, is probably understood by most adults very well.

But I will take this trade every time. I learnt a great deal about the world around me and about the worlds surrounding the world around me. I highly recommend it to the scientific layman.

No comments: