The Ultimate Geek book for me this week. How did I first hear about Elegant Universe? It takes me all the way back to the first time I was in Texas, during my Junior year of high school. My mom mentioned, as we were walking through Barnes & Noble one day, that this book The Elegant Universe was getting a lot of attention. It was sitting on a table, so I picked it up and bought it. I was a geek in high school, and was missing my math/science/computer program that I had left in Michigan when we moved to Texas. So I thought this would make me feel better. Well, soon after we found out/must have found on TV the NOVA program that they made about the book. I was mesmerized by the theoretical possibilities of string theory, and the pictures that it created of our universe.
As the years have gone by, I have watched that NOVA program [and even bought it at one point] over and over again. Usually during the times when I have been sick on the couch. Brian Greene actually came to BYU one year to do a forum. My room mate didn't tell me until after that he was in the Bookstore signing books. I will forever kick myself for not getting my book signed. But I never read the book, which I had carried around for years, from one apartment to the next -- always meaning to read it one day.
Well, that day has come. I picked it up, and decided that 6 years was enough time for me to finally read this darn book. So I did. I was surprised on two accounts. First of all, I was surprised how dense the book was. Brian Greene is an amazingly intelligent man, and yet tries to write about theoretical physics in such a way that an "ordinary" person could read it. [And by ordinary, I mean a person who has a serious science background, and can understand quantum mechanics] He doesn't dumb it down too much, but uses enough analogies and metaphors to help paint the picture. It still was pretty intense, even without a majority of the math. The second way the book surprised me was how much I actually understood it. I got maybe 75-85% of the stuff, even after not taking a real science class since high school. [I will never count Physical Science 100 as a real science class. Never.]
I really enjoy Brian Greene, who has tried hard to explain a field that many would deem "too smart for the average person". He has two books, one that just came out that continue to explore string theory and the implications of this theory on the universe. Hopefully it won't take 6 years for me to read them, now that I've got one under my belt.
Final Score: 5 out of 5 stars
You have another blog? What the? Well... it'll get on my stalker list soon enough, I expect. ;) Have fun reading all the Austen! Have you read it before? I really liked Persuasion... I've only read that one, Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, but I have all of them and I want to read all of them... eventually.
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