Simon Winchester
Paperback | Pages: 464 pages Rating: 3.87 | 17207 Users | 1257 Reviews
Present Containing Books Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883
| Title | : | Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 |
| Author | : | Simon Winchester |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 464 pages |
| Published | : | July 5th 2005 by Harper Perennial (first published April 1st 2003) |
| Categories | : | History. Nonfiction. Science. Geology. Environment. Nature |
Explanation Conducive To Books Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883
The bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman and The Map That Changed the World examines the enduring and world-changing effects of the catastrophic eruption off the coast of Java of the earth's most dangerous volcano — Krakatoa. The legendary annihilation in 1883 of the volcano-island of Krakatoa — the name has since become a byword for a cataclysmic disaster — was followed by an immense tsunami that killed nearly forty thousand people. Beyond the purely physical horrors of an event that has only very recently been properly understood, the eruption changed the world in more ways than could possibly be imagined. Dust swirled round the planet for years, causing temperatures to plummet and sunsets to turn vivid with lurid and unsettling displays of light. The effects of the immense waves were felt as far away as France. Barometers in Bogotá and Washington, D.C., went haywire. Bodies were washed up in Zanzibar. The sound of the island's destruction was heard in Australia and India and on islands thousands of miles away. Most significant of all — in view of today's new political climate — the eruption helped to trigger in Java a wave of murderous anti-Western militancy among fundamentalist Muslims: one of the first outbreaks of Islamic-inspired killings anywhere. Simon Winchester's long experience in the world wandering as well as his knowledge of history and geology give us an entirely new perspective on this fascinating and iconic event as he brings it telling back to life.Particularize Books In Pursuance Of Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883
| Original Title: | Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 |
| ISBN: | 0060838590 (ISBN13: 9780060838591) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Setting: | Krakatoa(Indonesia) Java(Indonesia) |
Rating Containing Books Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883
Ratings: 3.87 From 17207 Users | 1257 ReviewsAppraise Containing Books Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883
A lot of the reviews I've read for this book criticize Winchester for being, well, slow. Slow to get to the action, or whatever.Well, this isn't that kind of book. Though it's written of a Hollywood blockbuster event, this isn't popular fiction. It's a scientist's approach to a worldwide calamity, and as a result of that, Winchester earns the right to be a bit slow and methodical, delving into the significance of Indonesia in the science of evolution and how the science of plate tectonics playsSimon Winchester could turn your decrepit granny's boring old stories into lively, magical tales. He has a way of putting the reader into the past while making them feel as if the historical subjects he writes about are fresh and very much of the present. Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded is no exception. Though this raging volcano's past exploits in the form of catastrophic explosions can only be guessed at for lack of reliable eyewitnesses aside from its late 1800s eruption, Winchester
Entertaining, interesting and tedious (sometimes all at once), Winchester's take on the eruption of Krakatoa and its after effects is a smorgasbord of general geological history, historical re-enactment of the eruption and the end of Dutch colonialism in what is now known as Indonesia. With that said, my three star rating reflects some of my 'cons' with this book. He tends to repeat himself about specific things over and over and the chronology is off-putting (he goes back and forth between
I wanted to know about Krakatoa. Instead, I learned about the author. I got half way through and realised that I was wasting my life. It was though he really wanted to write an autobiography but the publisher said "no, we want you to write about Krakatoa instead", so he sneaked his autobiography within the pages of this.If you want to know what Simon Winchester did for a lot of his life, read this.If you want to know why an island blew up, read something else.
My father used to be a sailor before he retired, he did find himself all over the world and had a fascination with the sailing boats which was ironic at least him being a ships engineer. Another fascination he had was with countries and history, when I gave him this book about the explosion of the Indonesian volcano Krakatoa he was interested as it had to do with his favorite country where he was born and where he on a ship met my mom. And of course it had to do with a natural event that had a
I learned about myself that I like science more than history. I would have said before I liked both equally. I think it's because people can be awful, and science is always awesome.There's a great deal of both in this book, with more than the first half of the book building a detailed picture of now-Indonesia as a Dutch colony, and the development of the science of vulcanology and plate tectonics, and much more. The social conditions at the time Krakatoa exploded, right at the beginning of a
Another masterful book by Simon Winchester. I really enjoyed this one so much so that Ive bought a copy for my father for Fathers Day. When I was in Primary School one of my teachers once spoke about Krakatoa. Most of what he said wasnt true, for instance, he said that the tidal wave went around the world twice. Naturally, the 8 year old me had visions of a huge wall of water drowning the world. Krakatoa was bad, but not quite Biblical. Winchester is a pure delight to read. He has such a vast
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