Reviews
Liquid Rules: The Delightful and Dangerous Substances That Flow Through Our Lives by Mark Miodownik
isabellesbooks's review against another edition
3.25
I’m conflicted about what rating to give this book, but I’m going to go with ~3.5 stars. I think this makes me a pretty boring person, but I would have preferred a book solely about the scientific aspects and facts we learned about liquids, rather than the plane ride storyline that was involved. To me, it distracted from the point of the book and I was just waiting for each chapter to actually “start.” A fantastic idea, but not the ideal execution. I loved learning about tea, ink, soap, you name it, but it came at the cost of waiting through random tangents and reading about the author taking forever in the bathroom during turbulence.
laurenpedersen's review against another edition
2.0
Mildly interesting. Made more entertaining by correlating topics with the author’s transcontinental airplane flight. Editing of sentences and paragraphs was too close though in audio format. I rarely heard the narrator breathe and thought some statement’s deserved more “space”.
eileen_critchley's review against another edition
3.0
***½
A fun and accessible way to present a science-y topic.
{library, audio}
A fun and accessible way to present a science-y topic.
{library, audio}
bngoctopus's review against another edition
4.0
Miodownik's books are a joy to peruse, actively making material science digestible and enjoyable. A sentence on page 174 makes the rapid advancement in science particularly real – "Certainly, it's hard to imagine a time when we'll be able to collect more data from a complete no-fly scenario, given that flying is such an important part of global culture."
Two short years after the book was published, COVID-19 and the massive reduction in global travel has seen papers studying the exact scenario. I'm excited for what the following two years will hold for new understandings of the way the world works, as well as what Miodownik will pen next.
Two short years after the book was published, COVID-19 and the massive reduction in global travel has seen papers studying the exact scenario. I'm excited for what the following two years will hold for new understandings of the way the world works, as well as what Miodownik will pen next.
snoakes7001's review against another edition
5.0
In Liquid Rules Mark Miodownik makes us take a second look at some common liquids that we routinely take for granted. He uses a flight he took from London to San Fransisco as the structure of the book. This allows him to explore a diverse range of liquids including the kerosene that allows the plane to fly, water in the oceans the flight crosses, the ink in a ballpoint pen and the drinks served on the plane among many others. The very state of being a liquid, somewhere between a solid and a gas, means liquids sometimes behave in quite strange ways, but some have even more incredible properties.
Full of fascinating facts, it's an easy read that's not too heavy on the science but is full of wonder about the world.
Full of fascinating facts, it's an easy read that's not too heavy on the science but is full of wonder about the world.