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”The planet very briefly shrugged” 1906...the shrug.We have all had those professors who have spent a lifetime sticking interesting facts into their heads. These facts may be pertinent to their particular line of enquiry for which they are considered an expert, or they might be random interesting tidbits of knowledge that have been squirrelled away for future research. They might even be just fascinating stories that may have very little to do with anything else. Except of course that everyth...
The story of how I started reading this book begins outside San Antonio, as I guided my Subaru Outback onto Interstate-10, set the cruise control, and settled back for the long, empty ride to El Paso. It was August 2010, and my wife and I were midway through our Great 2010 Unplanned Battlefield Tour Road Trip Extravaganza. After visiting Shiloh, Vicksburg, San Jacinto and the Alamo, I acquiesced to my wife’s plea that we see the Grand Canyon since a) it was the Grand Canyon and b) it wasn’t a ba...
This is a fascinating but also frustrating book about the devastating San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906. Simon Winchester has a passion for geology, which makes him a good person to write about this topic. However, his passion is such that he gets carried away on long tangents, and in truth, this book meandered so much that I nearly abandoned it in frustration. The meandering starts early, with a long prologue about Neil Armstrong and how his trip to the moon affected the way scientists
I hate these science books by Winchester, he wreaks havoc on my Book Challenge because I cannot zip through it. I have to slow down and really enjoy it. Yeah, giving A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906 5 Stars for making plate tectonics interesting. Seriously. You don’t get to the San Francisco part of the story until page 230. The SF story is more interesting for the attempt by politicians and others to remake the 1906 event into a slight tremor...
I am 150 pages from the end of this tome, and you know what? I am going to DNF hard. I just dont care about it anymore. I really tried, I really did, but Winchester hasnt even started talking about THE ACTUAL EARTHQUAKE YET. I just have too many other books to read before I due to continue on with this self-absorbed shit.This was my last attempt with Winchester. He simply isn't an engaging author. I find him pompous and his books horribly bloated and lacking in any energy, connection, or emotion...
This is a mostly delightful tour of geology, earthquakes and plate tectonics, with an emphasis on California's infamous San Andreas Fault and the 1906 earthquake that devastated San Francisco. I can highly recommend it.Much to the delight of info gluttons, Winchester as always ranges widely from the nominal focus of the book. Any reader looking for an in-depth history of the whys and wherefores of the earthquake and fire will be more than satisfied, as well anyone wondering about the broader sur...
Boy howdy, Simon Winchester sure knows his geology! And while he’s telling you about it, he’ll also throw in a long tangent about camping on Mount Diablo. And then he’ll tell you about the Gaia theory. And then he might get distracted by a story from his college days. And then he FINALLY arrives – 205 pages into this book – at the Great San Francisco Earthquake, the theme of this book. But then – and I want to strangle him for this - he’ll forsake all the human lives of the city and their storie...
This book is a bit slow and meandering, with more geological factoids than I needed to know, but still I enjoyed it.I lived in sparkling San Francisco for a summer, on beautiful Beach Street, which took a hit during the Loma Prieta quake of 1989. But that recent quake was nothing compared to the 1906 disaster Winchester portrays here. He bases his account on first-hand journal entries, letters, diaries, newspaper articles by James Hopper, and the bleak photographs that made Genthe famous. Winche...
Simon Winchester can be a bit too much sometimes. This was my second attempt to read this book, the first one bogging down in so much detail and personal travelogue and not really reaching the actual earthquake until 200 pages in (aside from a teaser at the beginning, of course). Nevertheless, this time I persevered and am glad that I did.The 1906 San Francisco earthquake was devastating to the city. Not only did the shaking (7.9 or 8.3 depending on the estimates) of the earth destroy many poorl...
Wow, Mr. Winchester had a lot of time on his hands. I was expecting a different book, more concise regarding the earthquake in San Fran in the early 20th century. I wasn't expecting to learn about the Louisana purchase, and the myriad other little details that he discusses. It seemed as if in every CD the author goes off on a tangent. My wife listened in on a couple of CD's and without me prompting her, made the comment "this guy is all over the place." The last third really gets down to busines...
This is a wonderful book. It's the third book of his I've read, and I thoroughly enjoyed each one. Winchester is an Oxford-trained geologist, so I learned a ton about plate tectonics and earthquakes as well as California and San Francisco history. My only issue with the book is that Winchester's vocabulary is bigger than mine, so I had to look up quite a few words, such as "gallimaufry," as well as several French phrases that he assumes his reader will know. But it was good for me. I'm looking f...