Most Fascinating Book of the Year
In the 8/3 issue of Time magazine, Lev Grossman calls Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes, the “most flat-out fascinating book so far this year” and,
You wouldn’t get that from its title, which sounds like a tender coming-of-age novel, nor from its subtitle —How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science — which sounds like a course you napped through in college. But Holmes’ account of experimental science at the end of the 1700s — when amateurs could still make major discoveries, when one new data point could overthrow a worldview — is beyond riveting. Science was like punk rock: if you had a basement, some free time and some hubris, you could do it.
Large libraries are showing heavy holds on light ordering (27 on 2 copies in one instance).
It’s also been admiringly reviewed in the NY Times, the NYT Book Review, and the Wall Street Journal.
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July 27th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
I love the ‘punk rockers’ metaphore. This does look fascinating!