romie_chat's review
informative
medium-paced
4.0
not me falling in love all over again with the night sky
siarven's review
5.0
This book had Everything. I have rambled about it so much to friends while reading, I am absolutely and utterly obsessed with everything in this, from the history and philosophy and science to the humanity and awe and joy. It is very dense so it took me a long while to get through it just because I usually read 10-20 pages and then needed Time To Reflect And Think.
I've screamed about it in joy to my mother several times. I don't even know what I want to say here except to tell you to read it, because I want to reread this once a year, because it feels like reading an epiphany, like I understand humanity in a way I never have before. It feels like through reading this, I finally understand where we come from as a whole, and how all those things I learned about in school come together to form a united whole. (That's what I'm reeling from the most: I learned to hate so many subjects in school because the teachers sucked and the school system sucked etc etc... I feel like I finally understand why. School somehow tried to kill my curiosity, even if it didn't manage. This book managed to rekindle it, managed to remind me why I am so infatuated with this world we live in, how art and science and people and nature are ONE THING, how maths is in everything and how beautiful that is, even if I learned to hate maths in school ... oh, how I hated physics in school too! And yet now I want to learn everything and dig so much deeper into all these topics this book mentioned, because I finally feel like I have the full picture (or at least, a thousand puzzle pieces now fit together into a greater whole, and I feel like I knew the shape of the puzzle before but never Really Knew it? And now I do! I cried tears over this because it felt so huge and grand and beautiful, people are amazing and we've come so far and we have so much further yet to go... can you believe this is the world we get to live in? We've always been people, we've always been curious, we've always been filled with awe and wonder... I feel so much awe and wonder right now. Imagine!! My genes go back to the very very first living organism, as do those of everything else, and all of those go back to the explosions of generations of stars, so many many billions of years and series of incredible, tiny events, all of which had to happen to make this life I am living possible ... I have learned so many things, and I am in awe. What magic, what delight, that we get to live in this world, in this time of discovery and exploration. I wish I'd learned in school that all of the subjects we were taught are One Thing. I had sort of realized this, but I'd never TRULY known the connections, not like this, not until now. The only thing I have to add is that its view is fairly western/european because by the end it focuses a lot on the discoveries and scientific explorations of certain very western scientists. This makes sense, I suppose, but I will have to do some research into what other peoples were up to during these times :D
Thank you for this wonderful novel, I will cherish it forever (and make everyone read it). (Also may I just say but the cover is gorgeous of the edition I have...)
Please read this book.
I've screamed about it in joy to my mother several times. I don't even know what I want to say here except to tell you to read it, because I want to reread this once a year, because it feels like reading an epiphany, like I understand humanity in a way I never have before. It feels like through reading this, I finally understand where we come from as a whole, and how all those things I learned about in school come together to form a united whole. (That's what I'm reeling from the most: I learned to hate so many subjects in school because the teachers sucked and the school system sucked etc etc... I feel like I finally understand why. School somehow tried to kill my curiosity, even if it didn't manage. This book managed to rekindle it, managed to remind me why I am so infatuated with this world we live in, how art and science and people and nature are ONE THING, how maths is in everything and how beautiful that is, even if I learned to hate maths in school ... oh, how I hated physics in school too! And yet now I want to learn everything and dig so much deeper into all these topics this book mentioned, because I finally feel like I have the full picture (or at least, a thousand puzzle pieces now fit together into a greater whole, and I feel like I knew the shape of the puzzle before but never Really Knew it? And now I do! I cried tears over this because it felt so huge and grand and beautiful, people are amazing and we've come so far and we have so much further yet to go... can you believe this is the world we get to live in? We've always been people, we've always been curious, we've always been filled with awe and wonder... I feel so much awe and wonder right now. Imagine!! My genes go back to the very very first living organism, as do those of everything else, and all of those go back to the explosions of generations of stars, so many many billions of years and series of incredible, tiny events, all of which had to happen to make this life I am living possible ... I have learned so many things, and I am in awe. What magic, what delight, that we get to live in this world, in this time of discovery and exploration. I wish I'd learned in school that all of the subjects we were taught are One Thing. I had sort of realized this, but I'd never TRULY known the connections, not like this, not until now. The only thing I have to add is that its view is fairly western/european because by the end it focuses a lot on the discoveries and scientific explorations of certain very western scientists. This makes sense, I suppose, but I will have to do some research into what other peoples were up to during these times :D
Thank you for this wonderful novel, I will cherish it forever (and make everyone read it). (Also may I just say but the cover is gorgeous of the edition I have...)
Please read this book.
contre_qui's review
informative
fast-paced
3.5
Pretty interesting! At times I would have preferred more depth, but there was a good chronological arrangement of a broad history. Beneath the Night is approachable for most audiences, and I learned a lot. It seems to be well-researched and well-referenced. Overall, it was an easy, fun nonfiction read.
mayflxwer's review
4.0
A really good and entertaining overview of the history of human kind told through our relationship with stars. Particularly liked the chapter on music of the spheres, as well as references to Joni Mitchell.