octavia_cade's Reviews (2.64k)

I started this and was quickly faced with the thrilling possibility that I might have come across a philosophy text that was actually entertaining! Leo ranting about art genuinely had me interested. But it was a BLIND. For very soon he started lulling me to sleep with what philosophers thought about aesthetics and that was painful (when even your publisher is tell readers to skip chapters, Leo, be certain you have hit Dullsville and back away, please).

I came back to life when he started ranting again, but still couldn't take him seriously, because this book is based entirely around reverse-snobbery. If any elite likes any art, that art must be Wrong. Only peasants are the true arbiters of taste, and if they can't understand a specific instance of art (or science) then it's totally irrelevant to the human condition. (Yes, science too. The final chapter was a digression on how the horror of scientists studying things that interested them, and the experimentalists in general, were messing things up for the lowest common denominator by, you know, being intellectually curious.)

And that's not even getting into the whole bizarre religious argument behind this, which I think went as follows: "My religion is the right one. It prioritises brotherhood and general equality. Therefore if there is some piece of art that someone does not understand, that art is divisive, inegalitarian, and anti-religious, because Jesus hates The Ring Cycle and I do too."

I'm sure there's subtleties I'm missing here, but that seemed about the size of it. I might have side-eyed a lot of this text, but I wasn't crushingly bored for all of it, so two stars it is.

Stick to lit, Leo.

Some decades old, this book is pretty out of date now. What it does provide is an overview of the early days of genetic engineering, including science, regulation, and existing/potential legal and economic consequences. It has value for the description of experiments, but honestly it took me a while to get though because it could be very dry. Dull but worthy, I think I'd call it.

A series of biographical poems on Scott's voyage to Antarctica. More intellectually interesting than emotionally affecting, I think (although I could be spoiled by recent reading of Bill Sewell's Erebus), but still a truly enjoyable read that I've gone through multiple times now. I think my favourite poem of the collection is "Farewell to the Sun".

Always be sure, then, that you are making sense in the first place and the rules of algebra will then take care of you. If you're not making sense to begin with, then nothing can take care of you, algebra least of all.

Ha!

I happen to love algebra, so this book was a good reminder of that. It is however a book about very basic algebra, so while it might provide clear, useful help for young students, it's not much more than a reminder for the rest of us. Though, as I said, a reminder of love as much as method...

Essentially a puff piece on Elizabeth I; she may have been dead at the time of writing but that didn't stop Shakespeare from sucking-up. It's all laid on rather thick here. However the highlight of the play - surprisingly so, given the above - is the sympathetic treatment given to Katherine of Aragorn, who I've always felt immensely sorry for. She gets some fantastic speeches, as does Wolsey. The two of them quite overshadow Henry.

However. This felt dreadfully unfocused as a whole, in places wandering off into bits that could have been cut and in others not going far enough. I mean I liked reading it, but it felt as if a lot of the most interesting bits were ignored. For instance Anne, love her or hate her, is barely there, and for all the heavy-handed foreshadowing of Elizabeth's future there's little of the same for her mother.

Credit should be given to the editor of this edition, though. Catherine M. S. Alexander has managed to write an introduction that actually increased my interest in reading the play. Astonishing. Usually introductions to Shakespeare seem as if they're trying their damnedest to put me off by being as dreary-dull as possible, so I was genuinely startled to find that this doesn't have to be the case.

A basic science text, a little out of date now, on how genetics work in humans - though admittedly, the gene explanations start (as they so often do) with Mendel and his pea plants before moving on to blood types and so on. Very easy to understand, if not particularly thrilling.

I enjoy reading Asimov's non-fiction more than his fiction I think. At least his non-fiction on science - having a sci-comm background myself, it's always interesting to see how Asimov interprets for lay-people, and to compare his science writing to that of other science communicators. Which sounds very boring I know, but looking at the different ways people talk about science helps me to talk about it more clearly myself.

Pretty basic explanation and a little outdated now, when CFCs are banned already. Could have been useful for younger children at the time of publication, though - it's got clear, simple text and bright illustrations to help with context and science communication for that audience.

Adequate but not terribly inspiring. The illustrations are a bit dated but that can hardly be helped.

Brief and interesting. There was a throwaway comment on seeding the Venusian clouds with plant cells that's just crying out for a sci-fi story, I reckon.

My interest in this book is mostly due to its central (and largest) section: the poems written by Manhire after his stint as an Artist in Antarctica (a NZ programme aimed at encouraging connections between art and science).

Manhire's got an observant eye for the little details, the things that make his time on the ice stand out - the items in the historic huts, the little fluffy dice in the helicopter. It's interesting and vivid - almost makes you feel as if you're there with him.

The rest of the collection doesn't grab me so much. There are some lovely images, some witty observations, so I'm not sure that the poems are themselves actually any less deserving. It's just personal interest in and preference for the stories of science that makes me like the Antarctic poems better.