I adore the times spent with my fellow members of the Paige Turner Book Club...but I have a literary appetite that simply cannot be sated with just one book a month. This blog is a place for me to talk about more of my reading adventures. Reviews, summaries, highlights, warnings, praises and quotes. Because after all, it can be a jungle...er...savannah...out there.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Decoding the Universe by Charles Seife

This was a happy find during a random walk-through my library.  I was hooked from the moment I read the subtitle:  "How the new science of information is explaining everything in the cosmos from our brains to black holes."  How could I resist?  Then I read the first line:  "Civilization is doomed."  Yep.  This one was going to to be a winner. *grin*

I found this book fascinating.  Sometimes it got a little heavy and I had to pause and process what I was reading, but Seife does and extraordinary job pulling everything together.  You know why analogies work?  Because things are connected.  And Seife puts quantum physics, information theory, and other such fare into language I could understand.  But better than that, it was language that I enjoyed!

One thing I love about science:  While we're constantly figuring out new and mind boggling things, the old saying holds that "the more we learn, the less we know."  To me, this reinforces a state of wonder and amazement for both the created world, and the creator behind it.  I think I enjoyed this book so much because Seife writes from a similar optimistic and amazed point of view.  He welcomes the paradoxes and questions, and admits that there are things we have yet to answer or figure out.  Those questions keep us pushing and discovering. 

If you want to exercise a different part of your brain, if you're curious about science, astronomy, or mathematics, or if you're just in the mood for something different...pick up this book.  I think you'll like it!

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