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Buy Paradise Lost from the Telegraph Bookshop. Its symbolic evocation of human life as an epic journey homewards has inspired everything from James Joyce's Ulysses to the Coen brothers' film, O Brother Where Art Thou? Now the most entertaining and informative of these have been brought together in a long-awaited, thoroughly up-to-date, and Americanized new edition, including brand-new lists and list makers. His unflattering biographical essays on major Victorian figures debunked the myth of Victorian pre-eminence. Buy The Tipping Point from the Telegraph Bookshop The Beauty Myth Naomi Wolf Wolf, the controversial American feminist and teenage victim of anorexia , argues that women's insecurities stem from society's demands on them either to be beautiful or face judgment.
Where do you get from Moscow after a hour train trip? Where do you observe plasma rains? Good Days Start With Gratitude: A Snarky Mandala Coloring Book: Looking for a unique name for your baby? This book is a clean list of over 4, uncommon and obscure names with origins, meanings, and more! Share your thoughts with other customers.
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I was eight years old when my older brother received the original "Book of Lists" as a Christmas gift. The book compiled lists of mostly useless trivia.
My family members all had fun scanning the lists, but I was the most mesmerized. To an eight-year-old list freak, The Book of Lists was like manna. Reading about people who died unusual deaths or about the shortest celebrity marriages provided endless hours of entertainment. I've always loved lists and eagerly anticipated each successive edition of the "Book of Lists.
However, it's still great fun and provides a certain nostalgia factor for those of us who grew up with this series. This edition combines a number of old favorites 9 Disparaging Sobriquets , updates others the Olympic ice skating scandal is added to "10 Olympic Controversies" , and includes a number of brand new lists Oliver Stone's 12 Best Political Films. The book is perfect for bedside, as it can be digested in small portions before you slip into arcania-sated slumber. Since the first edition, numerous other books have aped the Book of Lists, but none has ever approached this series.
As someone who loves crazy, funny, and somewhat useless information-this book is wonderful. My husband and I use it as a coffee table book and he sometimes sneaks it into the bathroom with him lol! I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves interesting facts. For more years than I care to remember the Book of Lists and it's sequels have been giving us information that's presented with panache' and just the right amount of humor.
Want to know about stupid criminals - It's in there. Want to know odd facts about historical figures - It's in there! Want a light, fun read to satisfy your need for trivia - Oh, it's in there! This particular volume is a mix of many of the lists in the original Book of Lists, plus a few updates. I cannot say more about this book other than it helped me to seek other sources and aided me in so many ways when I was in college.
This was an eclectic group covering such things as Lucille Ball's favorite sitcomes to Raold Dahl's best books to take to a distant planet. Do yourself a favor and pick this one up. Of course, it would be great if they would re-release the original Book of Lists volumes in some kind of tribute package, but you take what you can get. I loved the old Book of Lists when I read it in the '70's; it was so interesting. I bought this New Book of Lists hoping it would be similar to the old book.
It is really a joy to read, interesting facts and data! This is an interesting book.
I had never read one of these before and was looking for something different. I keep it on my desk at work and look though it more as I have time. I'm sure I will pick up other issues in the future. This book is full of political bias. I loved the books by the father but the son is nothing but a no talent hack.
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In Stuff Matters , Miodownik entertainingly examines the materials he encounters in a typical morning, from the steel in his razor and the graphite in his pencil to the foam in his sneakers and the concrete in a nearby skyscraper. He offers a compendium of the most astounding histories and marvelous scientific breakthroughs in the material world, including:. From the teacup to the jet engine, the silicon chip to the paper clip, the plastic in our appliances to the elastic in our underpants, our lives are overflowing with materials.
Full of enthralling tales of the miracles of engineering that permeate our lives, Stuff Matters will make you see stuff in a whole new way.
Seven Elements that Changed the World: With carbon we access heat, light and mobility at the flick of a switch, while silicon enables us to communicate across the globe in an instant. Uranium is both productive nuclear power and destructive nuclear bombs ; iron is the bloody weapon of war, but also the economic tool of peace; our desire for alluring gold is the foundation of global trade, but has also led to the death of millions. John Browne, CEO of British Petroleum BP for twelve years, vividly describes how seven elements are shaping the world around us, for better and for worse.
Combining history, science, and politics, Seven Elements takes you on a present-day adventure of human passion and innovation. This journey is far from over: In this narrative of discovery, readers will come to understand how titanium pervades modern consumer society, how natural gas is transforming the global energy sector, and how an innovative new form of carbon could be starting a technology revolution. Humans have been perfecting the science of alcohol production for ten thousand years, but modern scientists are only just beginning to distill the complex reactions behind the perfect buzz.
From fermentation to distillation to aging, Proof offers a unique glimpse inside the barrels, stills, tanks, and casks that produce iconic drinks. Rogers ventures from the whiskey-making mecca of the Scottish Highlands to the most sophisticated gene-sequencing labs in the world -- and to more than one bar -- introducing us to the motley characters and evolving science behind the latest developments in boozy technology. With intoxicating enthusiasm, Rogers reveals alcohol as a miracle of science.
Physicists have been exploring, debating, and questioning the general theory of relativity ever since Albert Einstein first presented it in In this sweeping narrative of science and culture, astrophysicist Pedro Ferreira brings general relativity to life through the story of the brilliant physicists, mathematicians, and astronomers who have taken up its challenge.
For these scientists, the theory has been both a treasure trove and an enigma, fueling a century of intellectual struggle and triumph. Even today, PhD students are warned that specializing in general relativity will make them unemployable. Despite these pitfalls, general relativity has flourished, delivering key insights into our understanding of the origin of time and the evolution of all the stars and galaxies in the cosmos. Its adherents have revealed what lies at the farthest reaches of the universe, shed light on the smallest scales of existence, and explained how the fabric of reality emerges.
We are in the midst of a momentous transformation in modern physics. As scientists look farther and more clearly into space than ever before, The Perfect Theory reveals the greater relevance of general relativity, showing us where it started, where it has led, and where it can still take us.
With passion and curiosity, Alan Lightman explores the emotional and philosophical questions raised by recent discoveries in science. He looks at the dialogue between science and religion; the conflict between our human desire for permanence and the impermanence of nature; the possibility that our universe is simply an accident; the manner in which modern technology has separated us from direct experience of the world; and our resistance to the view that our bodies and minds can be explained by scientific logic and laws. Behind all of these considerations is the suggestion -- at once haunting and exhilarating -- that what we see and understand of the world is only a tiny piece of the extraordinary, perhaps unfathomable whole.
Interstellar , from acclaimed filmmaker Christopher Nolan, takes us on a fantastic voyage far beyond our solar system. Thorne shares his experiences working as the science adviser on the film and then moves on to the science itself. Amid devastating storms, drought, and floods, communities worldwide endured famine, disease, and civil unrest on a catastrophic scale. On the eve of the bicentenary of the great eruption, Tambora tells the extraordinary story of the weather chaos it wrought, weaving the latest climate science with the social history of this frightening period to offer a cautionary tale about the potential tragic impacts of drastic climate change in our own century.
Bringing the history of this planetary emergency grippingly to life, Tambora sheds light on the fragile interdependence of climate and human societies, and the threat a new era of extreme global weather poses to us all. The eruption, spewing out a poisionous fog, lasted for eight months, but its effects lingered across Europe for years, causing the death of people as far away as the Nile, and creating famine that may have triggered the French revolution.
Island on Fire is the story not only of a volcano but also of the people whose lives it changed, such as the pastor Jon Steingrimsson, who witnessed and recorded the events in Iceland. It is the story, too, of modern volcanology, and looks at how events might work out should Laki erupt again in our time.
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