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A review by leah_markum
Oxygen: The Molecule That Made the World by Nick Lane
2.0
There are two things to take into consideration when approaching this book: target audience and volume of quality content. In my case, one was a con and the other a potential pro.
The author claims this book is for the general public. No, it is not. Even people who love this book admit this is a hard read. An educational background in biochemistry with some understanding of geochemistry and genetics are a remarkable plus. Other than that you need a lot of patience. Despite my moderate knowledge in these fields (low level college), I read this book incredibly slowly for the first third. Eventually I became reluctant to read it at all, so I gave myself permission to skim.
Did I learn a lot? Yes. In fact, it's an incredibly fact dense book, especially if you don't mind the history of all the studies leading to current speculations on oxygen and its influence on life. Much--okay, page per page, it's probably most--of the book is dedicated to fleshing out the research that has theories on oxygen. Most negative reviews focus on this aspect. You can't read this book for it's conclusions, you have to enjoy reading the process.
A part of me would love to come back in a few years after bulking up my biochemistry background so that I can read faster and hold the information instead of letting the thoughts bounce back.
Here's the thing. If I could follow the book better I'd probably give it 4 stars--I truly suspect it'd be that fun and enlightening if it was accessible. However, this is where the mismatch of author intent and execution have to be my priority when deciding how I feel about the book overall. What's the point of great content if it's too disheartening to read because it's a few too many humps of challenges to bother with? No point. I did like what I did learn, but I can't give it any more credit than the 2 stars I'll give it. If I come back, I might rebalance it in consideration of it's value of knowledge as whole versus how much of that whole I grasped as a "general audience" the first time.
The author claims this book is for the general public. No, it is not. Even people who love this book admit this is a hard read. An educational background in biochemistry with some understanding of geochemistry and genetics are a remarkable plus. Other than that you need a lot of patience. Despite my moderate knowledge in these fields (low level college), I read this book incredibly slowly for the first third. Eventually I became reluctant to read it at all, so I gave myself permission to skim.
Did I learn a lot? Yes. In fact, it's an incredibly fact dense book, especially if you don't mind the history of all the studies leading to current speculations on oxygen and its influence on life. Much--okay, page per page, it's probably most--of the book is dedicated to fleshing out the research that has theories on oxygen. Most negative reviews focus on this aspect. You can't read this book for it's conclusions, you have to enjoy reading the process.
A part of me would love to come back in a few years after bulking up my biochemistry background so that I can read faster and hold the information instead of letting the thoughts bounce back.
Here's the thing. If I could follow the book better I'd probably give it 4 stars--I truly suspect it'd be that fun and enlightening if it was accessible. However, this is where the mismatch of author intent and execution have to be my priority when deciding how I feel about the book overall. What's the point of great content if it's too disheartening to read because it's a few too many humps of challenges to bother with? No point. I did like what I did learn, but I can't give it any more credit than the 2 stars I'll give it. If I come back, I might rebalance it in consideration of it's value of knowledge as whole versus how much of that whole I grasped as a "general audience" the first time.