Average customer rating:
- Not Free SF Reader
- classic
- I will finish this book, I will finish this book, I will finish...
- A War of 2 Worlds
- A War of 2 Worlds
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Life, the Universe and Everything (Hitchhiker's Trilogy)
Douglas Adams
Manufacturer: Del Rey
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Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
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The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time
ASIN: 0345391829
Release Date: 1995-09-27 |
Book Description
"HYSTERICAL!"
--The Philadelphia Inquirer
The unhappy inhabitants of planet Krikkit are sick of looking at the night sky above their heads--so they plan to destroy it. The universe, that is. Now only five individuals stand between the white killer robots of Krikkit and their goal of total annihilation.
They are Arthur Dent, a mild-mannered space and time traveler, who tries to learn how to fly by throwing himself at the ground and missing; Ford Prefect, his best friend, who decides to go insane to see if he likes it; Slartibartfast, the indomitable vicepresident of the Campaign for Real Time, who travels in a ship powered by irrational behavior; Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two-headed, three-armed ex-head honcho of the Universe; and Trillian, the sexy space cadet who is torn between a persistent Thunder God and a very depressed Beeblebrox.
How will it all end? Will it end? Only this stalwart crew knows as they try to avert "universal" Armageddon and save life as we know it--and don't know it!
"ADAMS IS ONE OF THOSE RARE TREASURES: an author who, one senses, has as much fun writing as one has reading."
--The Arizona Daily Star
Customer Reviews:
Not Free SF Reader.......2007-09-03
Throw yourself at the ground and miss. If you can't, don't whine about it.
Unfortunately the third Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book is nowhere near as entertaining as the first two installments. The tone of it changes considerably to somewhat this side of maudlin, apart from the odd entertaining piece like the flying, and insulting the galaxy in order, or a bit of Clockwork Orange inspired cricket.
classic.......2007-01-04
I couldn'd ask for more, to me this was the funniest of the hitchhiker's trilogy
I will finish this book, I will finish this book, I will finish..........2007-01-02
I have never reviewed a book that I have not yet finished. I respectfully admit that a book review should remain within the privileged realm of those whom have actually completed the book. However, the fact that I have picked this book up at least a dozen times and find it very hard to complete (considering I am a very quick reader and could probably finish War and Peace during a few bathroom visits is testament to the fact that I am having a very hard time with this book). I loved the first Hitchhiker's book and am just as passionate over Restaurant at the End of the Universe which are probably among my top favorite books of all time. I admit there are a couple of serious chuckles along the way but,WHAT HAPPENED? The genius is still there to be sure and I'd like to think I can follow the plot but there just doesn't seem to be any reason to want to follow along. It's not exactly "Vogon poetry" but compared to the brilliance of the first two, I am disappointed. I really want to like this book more and really hope that it gets better.
A War of 2 Worlds.......2006-10-18
The Kricket Planet have been locked up for years trying to get the 3 pillars and the Golden Bail so they can have the key. Once they get out they plan to destroy everything that is not Kricket. Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect set out to relieve the Universe of this disaster and along the way they run into some former past and a dangourous enemy. I would not reccomend this book. The book was slow and hard to follow, though it got better as I read on. I just wish that it would explain more of what happened and that the story would be little more adventurous.
A War of 2 Worlds.......2006-10-18
The Kricket Planet have been locked up for years trying to get the three pillars and the Golden Bail so they can have the key. Once they get out they plan to destroy everything that is not Kricket. Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect set out to relieve the Universe of this disaster. Along the way they run into some former past and a dangourous enemy. I personnaly would not reccomend this book. The book was slow and hard to follow, though as I read through it, it got better. I just wish that it would explain more of what happened and that the story would be a little bit more adventurous.
Amazon.com
Some books have a hard time living up to their titles, but The Universe, the Eleventh Dimension, and Everything does just fine. Physicist and writer Richard Morris seeks to explain the current state of knowledge in cosmology and subatomic physics; as if that weren't enough, he goes on to give us his take on how scientists do their work. What would have been three short works in the hands of a lesser writer becomes a challenging, enlightening book that pushes readers forward from the first page. Morris's gift for explanation is a wonder--few can get across the intricate ephemera of superstring theory without losing the audience at some point, but before we know it, we've already covered the scary stuff and are on to something new.
Perhaps the most important section of the book is its last, "The Scientific Imagination." Here the author lays out his thoughts on scientific work--saying, for example, "there is no scientific method"--and shows us that research and theorizing are just as creative and playful as painting and singing. Examples from such greats as Einstein and Galileo cement his arguments and inspire the reader to see the white-coated lab technician as just another stereotypical fantasy. It may not answer the Great Questions (we're not close yet), but The Universe, the Eleventh Dimension, and Everything is a satisfying survey of what we know and how we learned it. --Rob Lightner
Book Description
From the formation of the universe to a theory of matter to life on earth, Richard Morris delivers a clear and concise picture of what we know, how we know it, and what the limits to future knowledge might be.
Morris begins by discussing the various ideas about the ultimate destiny of the universe: whether it will continue expanding or eventually collapse. Next he addresses the search for a unified theory of matter that will encompass the four known forces in nature: gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces. Finally, Morris looks at the origin of life. Once conditions were hospitable, life evolved on Earth almost immediately. But how? This is the subject of a number of theories the book outlines.
Average customer rating:
- Irritating and pointless
- Lots of speculation, no substance
- Know it's place
- Long, empty, boring, not worth the time
- Muddled, inaccurate, overblown, and poorly written
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Beyond Chaos: The Underlying Theory Behind Life, the Universe, and Everything
Mark Ward
Manufacturer: Thomas Dunne Books
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0312274890 |
Book Description
We are surrounded by order that-until now-physics has been unable to explain.
The spread of veins in the back of our hands mirrors the spread of branches on a tree; fern fronds bear a resemblance to the outline of fjords; the best-loved classical music echoes the patterns of our heartbeats.
The theory of Universality is using fractal patterns to explain much of the world around us. Could it be that the same laws that govern systems in their critical states also govern some of the most unpredictable events such as earthquakes, avalanches, the growth of cities and stock market crashes-even the way businesses are run and the way fashions come and go? Is there a common principle, a universal affinity that binds us to the forces of nature?
A consensus is emerging on how complex structures grow and sustain themselves; phenomena that were once thought to be unique now appear to have a great deal in common. Mark Ward examines these theories, explores how they fit into an age-long quest to discover how the universe works, delves into their possible limitations and asks what we can do with this new knowledge.
While identifying patterns does not mean that we can always predict what will happen next, some of the trends scientists are noticing prove that life is not a series of random events. Universality deepens our understanding of natural phenomena and our place in the physical world.
We are surrounded by order that-until now-physics has been unable to explain.
The spread of veins in the back of our hands mirrors the spread of branches on a tree; fern fronds bear a resemblance to the outline of fjords; the best-loved classical music echoes the patterns of our heartbeats.
The theory of Universality is using fractal patterns to explain much of the world around us. Could it be that the same laws that govern systems in their critical states also govern some of the most unpredictable events such as earthquakes, avalanches, the growth of cities and stock market crashes-even the way businesses are run and the way fashions come and go? Is there a common principle, a universal affinity that binds us to the forces of nature?
A consensus is emerging on how complex structures grow and sustain themselves; phenomena that were once thought to be unique now appear to have a great deal in common. Mark Ward examines these theories, explores how they fit into an age-long quest to discover how the universe works, delves into their possible limitations and asks what we can do with this new knowledge.
While identifying patterns does not mean that we can always predict what will happen next, some of the trends scientists are noticing prove that life is not a series of random events. Universality deepens our understanding of natural phenomena and our place in the physical world.
Customer Reviews:
Irritating and pointless.......2004-05-23
After reading the first three pages of the introduction, I thought "this must get better". I skipped to chapter 1 and read two more pages of vague, disconnected repetition. So I turned to Amazon reviews to see if it was worth my while to persist. It isn't. On to the next book...
Lots of speculation, no substance.......2004-03-14
The book is disjointed and speculative so that it is hard to take any of the arguments seriously. It is strange to find this in a book about science, but then perhaps it is not a science book! Some remarks comparing scientific research today with demonology several hundred years ago make you wonder. It is almost as bad as `The Web of Life' by Fritjof Capra (conversely if you liked that book, you will like this one too). Oddly enough, although the book claims not to be about Chaos but about `Universality', it is Chaos that appears in the title. I am fairly familiar with the research into chaos theory, but having read this book I still cannot really tell you what `Universality' is, other than that it seems to involve everything (!). In any case, the book presents even the better data on the subject poorly.
On a general note, in thinking of fractals (discussed extensively but loosely in the book) I wonder if we are not over-interpreting the data. After all, mathematicians have known all along that mathematical models can represent a variety of natural processes and yet have no causal relation to them. Similarly, when we see fractals in a wide variety of biological structures and processes, is it because fractals are fundamental to them, or because, as I suspect, a fractal can be used to model anything? Is it the chicken or the egg?
Know it's place.......2003-11-23
Understanding why you're reading this book makes all the difference. I used this book as a carefree nightly read around an interesting topic, and it worked! Using this book to solve problems would be a mistake. There's not enough detail and it won't work.
The author approached Universality from enough angles to brighten my world to possible unexplored connections. Unfortunately, the author's light dimmed a bit when he didn't stay "on-message" 15% of the time, wherein I skipped forward some pages. Hense, the 3 stars.
Overall, read this book as an intro, and lighten up!
Long, empty, boring, not worth the time.......2003-05-31
One would think that 300 pages discussing science theory would have some substance but this book could have been edited down to an eight page magazine article with little loss of content. And not a "heavy" magazine for scientists but a "popular" type magazine. I forced myself to stay with it hoping that the author would eventually get serious but the book stayed chatty and anecdotal to the end. According to the bio Mr. Ward is a science writer for the BBC and I did get the feeling of a TV narration purposely kept light in order not to scare off any viewers.
I found myself rereading series of pages because I had the feeling that I had missed something and then finding that I hadn't missed a thing, there was simply no content to retain. This happened repeatedly and made this book a real chore to finish and ultimately unrewarding. A shame too because the premises Mr. Ward teases the reader with are intriguing but the book fails miserably to live up to the promises made on the dust cover. Budding authors should seek out his agent however, that individual is well worth his fee!
Muddled, inaccurate, overblown, and poorly written.......2003-05-15
British journalist Mark Ward's exposition of the theory of Universality and self-organized criticality (SOC) is little more than breathless hype purporting to show that fractal patterns and SOC are present in virtually every aspect of the biological and physical world. While this may or may not be true, Ward's largely anecdotal presentation, with its at times almost-mystical (although nonreligious) tone, unfortunately arouses the suspicion that the theory rests on a shaky scientific foundation. It should also not be too much to expect that a book devoted to the theory of Universality actually give an explicit definition of Universality, which Ward consistently fails to do. The book is introductory and nontechnical, so it is perhaps unfair to expect him to give a solid theoretical foundation to the theory, but the reader is left with an uneasy feeling that the gentleman "doth protest too much." Those interested in chaos theory, emergent phenomona, and SOC would do much better to read the books of Stuart Kauffmann and John Holland or the older nontechnical classic "Chaos: Making a New Science" by James Gleick.
The book is also plagued with numerous factual errors. (His reference to Beethoven's Eroica Symphony as a late work, produced in the same general period as the Ninth Symphony and the Diabelli Variations, has been cited in another review.) Additionally, Mr. Ward's writing style and his many lapses in grammar, syntax, and punctuation make the book irritating to read and make one wish that a good editor had taken the manuscript firmly in hand. Awkward shifts in tense within a single sentence, lack of subject-verb agreement, and Mr. Ward's apparent disdain for commas make what is actually a simple book a chore to read.
Book Description
Volume Two of Stubbs' comprehensive spiritual and metaphysical 2-book compendium explores reincarnation, out-of-body experiences, death, near-death experiences, life on the "other side" and many other multi-dimensional forms of human existence that, as Stubbs explains, "are all part of learning how to honor who you really are: a spiritual being in a physical body." Stubbs also demonstrates how to work with individual energy patterns or bio-rhythms and use some of the many energy tools and technologies currently available for balancing the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual body systems. Volume Two delivers new information about human life in relation to the cosmos and explains why it has been so difficult for global leaders to publicly acknowledge extraterrestrial presence. Writes Stubbs: "We are part of a vast and wonderful universe. As the mystics have always known and science is currently discovering, it is much more than can be seen, heard and touched. And so are we.
Amazon.com
Science isn't for everyone, but if you have even the faintest trace of curiosity about the world around you, Almost Everyone's Guide to Science will be a delight. Author John Gribbin, a cosmologist by training, is better known for writing such popularizations of the freaky world of 20th-century physics as In Search of Schrödinger's Cat. His choice of subjects for this latest project reaches new territory, expanding in breadth to cover not just physics but chemistry, geology, meteorology, and the life sciences as well; in short, he introduces the world as we know it. Challenging but not intimidating, his writing presumes an actively intelligent reader willing to pause and think things out from time to time. Like the best science writers, he knows that his characters are people like Einstein and Darwin rather than theories like relativity and natural selection. This human-centered writing style is absorbing and a little sneaky--even those readers pathologically resistant to retaining scientific information will find themselves startled once or twice by an odd paradox or brilliant insight. This mastery of storytelling is ultimately what sets Gribbin apart from most other science writers; if you've decided that it's time to survey what we know about the world, Almost Everyone's Guide to Science is the best place to start. --Rob Lightner
Book Description
For anyone interested in the remarkable achievements and discoveries of modern science--but intimidated by confusing technical detail--this book offers the perfect solution. Award-winning author John Gribbin stands back from the details and offers a broad picture of science, from the structure of particles within the atom to the birth of the universe. With eloquent clarity, Gribbin explains the simple rules that govern the physical world.
Customer Reviews:
Almost Everyone's Guide to Science: The Universe, Life and Everything.......2006-08-25
Excellant book, ties the atom to physics, chemistry, life and astronomy. Simplifies science.
Not a good book for beginners........2005-08-25
I like John Gribbin's books a lot. I have ten of them. I've read them all, some of them a few times.
However, this is not a good book for beginners. No attempt has been made by either author or publisher to present science to a non-scientific audience. The book consists of block text from beginning to end. There are no illustrations and no diagrams. Many scientific terms are used without any explanation of their meaning, and the style of writing is not simple.
John Gribbin is a very prolific author, he has just rattled off another book, and someone has thought of a catchy title for it.
Having said this, there is a lot of interesting material in this book. I'll be keeping my copy and re-reading it. But "almost everyone's guide to science" it certainly isn't.
A much easier book by John Gribbin is 'Stardust', which is about the way in which the elements that make up everything around us are themselves made in stars - hence we are all stardust!
If you want an excellent introduction to biology please be sure to look up a marvellous book called 'Exploring the Way Life Works' by Mahlon Hoagland et al which has received justifiably ecstatic reviews here on Amazon.
Great Book.......2001-10-06
I really enjoyed reading this book. Especially the end where it discusses planets, space, and how everything came together. It's amazing how much we puny humans can figure out about a star half way across the galaxy.
The one thing that held this book back from getting a perfect 5/5, is the fact that it had _no_ pictures to help explain the concepts. This was very annoying, but it does force the reader to visualize concepts in his/her head.
Over all, I would recommend this book to "Almost Everyone" interested in science.
Book Review No. 32.......2000-02-25
This is a best-seller by an eminent scientist who doesn't believe the world is goverened by magic or the supernatural.He presents scientific evidence that everything is coherent and fits together. Gribbin starts with the smallest particle and goes to the birth of the universe including the origin of our species. This is an ambitious, never-tried-before book. It is breathtaking in scope.Don't bother to read it if you don't have a healthy curiosity or the patience to put up with complicated scientific concepts. And don't worry about not understanding all of it; what you do understand will stagger you.
Interesting ideas: People are the most complex systems in the known universe. No two are exactly alike. Studies confirm tha tNinety-eight per cent of the DNA in human beings, gorillas and chimpanzees is the same...the differences tha tmake us uniquely human amount to a little over one per cent. We are one per cent human and roughly 99 per cent ape.
If our planet were the size of a basketball, the thickness of the breathable atmosphere would be no more than one quarter of a millimeter, a barely noticeable 6-mile-high smear over the surface of the ball. The Earth is a ball of rock covered by a thin smear of atmosphere and ocean.
In about ten billion years the Sun will cool into a solid lump. About 440 billion years ago there was a massive extinction of life on earth. Stray pieces of cosmic debris still collide with planets and one impact contributed to the death of dinosaurs about 65 million years ago.
Fine-particle scientists predict the existence of different kinds of particles from anything we have seen yet. They have not been detected, but have been given names such as photonios. This class of objects is referred to as Weakly Interacting Massive Particles or WIMPs because they have mass, but don't interact very strongly with everyday matter.Astronometers and Particle Scientists would like to detect these mysterious particles directly and this may happen within the next few years. Models suggest we are swimming in a sea of WIMPs, possibly a plausible explanation of the so-called spirit world.
This work is a monumental job of setting down that which, in scientific circles, is called the "Theory of Everything" (TOE) for all to understand. Gribbin has summed up the last 400 years of scientific thinking on where we came from, and where we are going, if that is of interest to you.
Jim Grubb grubb@uswest.net
A Fun Read--Yes, believe it!.......2000-02-10
Science books are generally drab, inpenetrable, and long. Gribbins' book is none of these. I found the book quite readable. The most complex scientific concepts are described in sufficient detail to tell the story, yet with clarity. He avoids math, chemical formulae, and jargon.
Many scientific overview books, particularly those with sweeping titles such as this, are lengthy to the point of being imposing. At 220 pp, this is an easy read over a few days.
If you're interested in understanding science from strings at 10E-35 meters to the size/age of the universe, you'll enjoy this book. As a chemist, it was illuminating to get a perspective on the other disciplines and scales of our universe.
Average customer rating:
- A little thick
- A Superb Overview of a Complex but Crucially Important Vision
- Not for the uninitiated
- What Ted Said
- Finally, a great introduction to Wilber's work
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The Integral Vision: A Very Short Introduction to the Revolutionary Integral Approach to Life, God, the Universe, and Everything
Ken Wilber
Manufacturer: Shambhala
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1590304756
Release Date: 2007-08-14 |
Book Description
Suppose we took everything that all the various world cultures have to tell us about human potential—about psychological, spiritual, and social growth—and identified the basic patterns that connect these pieces of knowledge. What if we attempted to create an all-inclusive map that touches the most important factors from all of the world's great traditions?
Ken Wilber's Integral Vision provides such a map. Using all the known systems and models of human growth—from the ancient sages to the latest breakthroughs in cognitive science—it distills their major components into five simple elements, and, moreover, ones that readers can verify in their own experience right now.
In any field of interest, such as business, law, science, psychology, health, art, or everyday living and learning—the Integral Vision ensures that we are utilizing the full range of resources for the situation, leading to a greater likelihood of success and fulfillment. With easily understood explanations, exercises, and familiar examples, The Integral Vision shows how we can accelerate growth and development to higher, wider, deeper ways of being, embodied in self, shared in community, and connected to the planet, which can literally help with everything from spiritual enlightenment to business success to personal relationships.
Pages 10–11
Pages 12–13
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Pages 108–109
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Customer Reviews:
A little thick.......2007-09-27
I found this book to be a little on the thick side but with lots of information. An easier and more applicable read is FREE YOUR MIND by Sensei Tony Stultz. Free Your Mind: The Four Directions of an Awakened Life
A Superb Overview of a Complex but Crucially Important Vision.......2007-08-30
I have been studying and enjoying Ken Wilber's writings for almost thirty years, so I am not a total newbie.
I have also liked the way in which, over the years, Ken has not been afraid to revise his position as new information and new insights have appeared. He has also reached a place familiar to anyone who is trying to push the envelope in any field:
At what point do you simplify to clarify?
When do you take the key components of a model or system and break it down into digestible chunks without dumbing it down or selling out?
And finally, how do you present it in a way that makes sense to people outside your narrow field?
Many philosophers and theorists simply do not bother: they write long treatises that will only be understood by a few of their peers, and as for explaining to the world at large? Forget it!
This short and visually stunning book lays out the bare bones of the most recent incarnation of Ken Wilber's model of life, the universe and everything. Here you will learn the basics about "quadrants," "levels," "lines," states" and "types." Not only what they are, but also why an understanding of them can pay enormous dividends in your own life and in providing insights into your personal psychological and spiritual development, as well as that of your children, family and society.
Nobody, least of all Ken himself, believes that this is the only model, or that the map is the same as the territory. But the model can be immensely valuable. Time alone will tell how well it can incorporate new data and insights without becoming a meta-theory that sounds good but has no predictive value. For that is where this whole project will live or die: its ability to predict and to be falsifiable. At the moment the indications are that this way of looking at the world is here to stay, and it would be well to know something about it.
I had doubts that the project would even be possible, and I am pleased to have been proven wrong. The book works extremely well as an introduction to the Integral model. But it should also be seen as something of a taster. If it whets your appetite, then you will probably want to explore some of the books, CDs and websites that have been created by Ken Wilber and Integral Institute.
This book is essential for anyone interested in psychological, social and spiritual growth, and I recommend it very highly.
Richard G. Petty, MD, author of Healing, Meaning and Purpose: The Magical Power of the Emerging Laws of Life
Not for the uninitiated.......2007-08-27
This book was my introduction to Wilber's Integral Model/IOS/etc. I bought this because I hoped it would give me an overview. In some ways I guess it did, but not really. I get that there are quadrants and types and lines and levels, but I don't understand what they mean or how they interact and cohere. It's dense and cognitive. Normally I like dense and cognitive, but it's like reading Le Petit Prince in 7th Grade French Class. You get some of the words, not the meaning. I wanted to understand the essence of the process--for a newbie this isn't the way. There's a lot of insider jargon to contend with. I'm still interested in the Integral Model, but this isn't the 101 I hoped it would be. Or maybe I'm just Amber... Keep looking!
What Ted Said.......2007-08-21
As a longtime "Wilberian," I most heartily agree with Ted's review, below. It's small enough to toss in your backpack, and visual enough to whip out and show to anyone asking, "So, what is this 'Ken Wilber' guy all about, anyway?" Buy a bunch and give 'em out as birthday gifts!
Finally, a great introduction to Wilber's work.......2007-08-20
Having been an avid reader of Wilber's books for years, I have been deeply moved by his philosophy as it has helped me orientate and weave multiple perspectives in coherent and compelling way. Although this is far from my favorite book of his, I applaud it for what it is meant to be: a primer on integral theory for someone that is new to it and isn't ready to dive in too deeply. This is something I have been looking for a while, as I have often recommended Wilber's work to friends. When asked what was the first book they should read, I would often suggest "Brief History of Everything" (the abridged version to "Sex, Ecology, and Spirituality"). Still, for many of my friends not accustomed to reading philosophy, they felt that "Brief History" was a bit much.
"The Integral Vision" hits the right note for just about everyone, as it goes down easier than most of Ken's work, but still gets its point across thoroughly. This is still not light-weight material, however, most readers will find the attractive illustrations helpful and crisp non-academic prose refreshing. "The Integral Vision" also demonstrates that integral theory passes the "mother-in-law test": the idea that if you can't explain it simply and succinctly to her, it's probably too complicated and nonsensical to use. Any decent theory needs to be elegant for intellectuals and simplistic enough for everyone else. "The Integral Vision" successfully lays out quadrants, levels, lines, states, and types in both a manner of elegance and ease.
With integral theory, Wilber has brought something of a gift, albeit "true, but partial" (as he would put it), that has built on many philosophical foundations and resealed some cracks in the process. "The Integral Vision" is worth a look for newbies and Wilber fans who are looking for a gift read for friends.
Product Description
Contents: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; The Restaurant at the End of the Universe; Life, the Universe and Everything; So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish; Mostly Harmless.
Customer Reviews:
Books, not Movie........2005-10-21
The books are wonderful, but if you think that the books are gonig to be like any other version of The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, you are dead wrong. If you read the introduction to the books you know that each version is meant to be different than the others. That is the beauty of Douglas Adams work. They are all unique but all worth you time.
your guide.......2005-10-13
Okay, for those of you who haven't read the book yet but did watch the movie you guys missed out on a lot the movie didn't include all the scenes that I personally though was very well.
Now that that's out of the way. Douglas Adams in his one of his possibly best know books really out did himself. In this adventure a boring simpleton named Arthur Dent living on the planet we call earth has befriended a guy named Ford Perfect, who is not as he claimed from earth but from a planet called Betelgeuse. Where he was sent from to do research for "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe" (it's a book where it has everything and anything that you could possibly need to know about the universe). Ford tells Arthur that he isn't from around here. He isn't from Earth. In telling Arthur this he also tells him that the earth is about to end.
And since they have gotten to be really close friends he takes Arthur with him when he hitches a ride with the Vogan ships (these are what the aliens are called that destroyed our planet earth). Vogan's in particular don't like hitchhikers very much. So they kick them off the ship, shortly after they get on. And by pure chance they get picked up. And the story goes from there.
Now that I've told you how the book starts I'll leave it up to you to read the rest of the book. And if you read this book, then watch the movie. You'll see that the movie is hardly based on this incredible book .
Book Description
The science behind the debate raging in modern physics over the disconcerting and uncomfortable realization that just maybe there is, as astronomer Fred Hoyle put it, some sort of "superintellect that has monkeyed with the physics". Written with the non-scientist in mind, this exploration of Big Bang, Schroedinger's Cat, the Chaos of 9/11, the Complexity of the mimic octopus and the blister beetle, and the strong Anthropic Principle is accessible to anyone bright enough to be interested. Ultimately, tucked in here somewhere is a middle ground between evolution and creation that will leave nobody happy, but everyone intrigued.
Customer Reviews:
Difficult stuff in normal language..........2007-08-17
This was the first book on this particular topic that was written in language I could really understand! Andy Fletcher clearly is very smart but is still able to write for a normal intelligent person to understand. He knew how deep to go, but he also knew when to say "here's the gist of what you need to know, and if you don't understand the details of why that is, no problem!" which I found comforting and helpful. His sense of humor throughout also helped maintain a good tone in the book and got me chuckling a few times. If you are interested in this type of thing - why we are here, how everything is connected, searching for meaning etc etc - I highly recommend this book, especially as a starter to get yourself into it and prepare the way for some of the more difficult concepts out there.
Fun to Read, Great Information, Gives You a New Appreciation for How Things Work.......2007-07-26
This book was incredibly good. It was easy to read, explained complex things with great examples from everyday life. It explains things like the Theory of Relativity and Quantum Physics in a way that makes you go, "Oh, so THAT'S what it means."
Great book for teenagers especially. Certainly argues for intelligent design at a minimum, and the involvement of God in the universe and the way it works. There's just way too much order out there to think it's all random.
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