hello readers I'm Reuben Heppelthwaite
and welcome back to keep reading your
channel for great book recommendations
to help get you through the coronavirus
lockdown so we're into week 9 of the
lockdown now and I don't know about you
but it seems to me that there's a
twinkling of light at the end of the
tunnel and we might be getting back to
some sort of normality or some time soon
so hang on in there I hope you've been
reading some of the books I've recommended
so far if you click on the link in the
top right of the screen and you'll be
able to click into my entire reading
list and you might find something there
that suits you if the book that I'm going to recommend today doesn't
so this week I'm wearing my Goorin
Brothers trucker cap it makes me feel
like I'm going to the Island of Capri
and going there with my wife and my
children I'm gonna have some seafood
pasta maybe an aperol spritz some
delicious Italian ice cream hopefully we'll be able to do that agin sometime soon
so onto this week's recommendation
it's an extraordinary book first
published in 1981 it's written by the
American astronomer and scientist Carl
Sagan and it's called Cosmos so Sagan says
it's the story of cosmic evolution
science and civilization I bought this
book a couple of years ago and I'd been
watching the wonders of the solar system
and the wonders of the universe
the TV programmes hosted by Brian Cox the physicist not the actor and he'd
mentioned a few times on this TV program
that it was this book that made him want
to become a physicist so I thought it
must be pretty good and I bought a copy
I didn't find time to read it so it's
sort of stayed on the bookshelf for a
couple of years so during the lockdown I
picked it up and had a bit more
time on my hands picked it up started reading and
was totally immersed in this book for a
few days it really is an absolutely
wonderful book Sagan takes you
on a journey of the cosmos starting with
our own tiny fragile of rock drifting in
the cosmic ocean to the solar system
the Milky Way galaxy and in far beyond I've been confused by some of the science in
other books on this topic Stephen
Hawking's book a brief history of time
is an example of that I found that quite difficult to read but this book is very different
Sagan manages to explain very difficult
scientific ideas with ease and he makes
them both graspable and exciting put it this way I now think I fully understand the concept of Spacetime thanks to Mr Sagan
what I really loved about this book is
it not only gives you an account of 15
billion years of cosmic evolution from
the Big Bang but also tells you about
how science and civilization evolved
together including the socio-economic
forces and individuals and civilizations
that helped shape modern science there
are sections on missions to nearby
planets are the origins of life the
evolution of galaxies and even the
library of ancient Alexandria this book
is obviously about space but trust me
it's so much more
I particularly enjoyed reading the last
chapter of this book it's entitled who
speaks for Earth and in that chapter
Sagan addresses some of the issues of
the time bearing in mind the book was written in 1981 these issues included the climate emergency air
pollution propensity for aggression
between nations the threat of nuclear
war and human self-destruction and
survival it seems to me that 40 years
on and humanity is still working on
these issues and nothing much has
changed Sagan finishes by saying we
speak for Earth our obligation to survive is owed
not just to ourselves but also to the Cosmos ancient and vast from which we spring
I can't wait to read this book
again
I've got a few books have been
recommended to me via comments on the
channel so a shout out to Paul
Quaintance who recommended gambling
for life by Harry Findlay and Paul
Crilly who recommended origins of the
Scottish enlightenment 1707 to 1776 by
Jane Rendell and also a shout-out to
David Beckham who recommended The Boss
the many sides of Alex Ferguson by Michael Crick
so that's another book
recommendation done thanks for watching
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recommendations in the comments section and I'll shout them out the following week
I'll be back with another recommendation
next Thursday and another hat in the
meantime stay safe stay healthy stay
positive and keep reading
