THE GRAND DESIGN-Stephen Hawking

[richbyers]

I went to my local library in search of literature to help me with my astronomy studies, and in helping me gain a foothold on the world of quantum theory

now i picked up the grand design seeing its length, thinking whether it was rubbish or amazing, it wouldnt take me much time to read, and after all it had one of the cleaverst guys in the history of humans on the cover.

im pleased i didnt read any reviews on amazon beforehand- they were very mixed, some loved it, some hated it, some most obviously had failed to grasp the point of the book and were busy ranting about it being an anti-god book- i would like to take the time to tell those people to reconsider their opinions- this is science, we have things called theories, which whether you understand them or not, have truth in them

anyways.....i actually LIKED this book. i read it in a few hours, quite easily, and am proud to say i grasped most of the elements in question.

now as i say, i was in search of some neat quantum mechanics books out there, and i knew from the length of this one, that it would be nothing other than a very basic intro to it- which i guess it is. Well perhaps not even that. This book is less informative than a theory book, but set out to be interesting to the average person who doesnt know any physics

i do know some physics- at least im studying it (self study) in order to aid my other studies, however i am at the start of my journey- and this book helped me i think.

The book gives a good insight to the working of the universe as stated by our best current theories, and manages this without going into too much detail.

A few peopled reviewing the book complained about the jokes in the book- this is going to be an opinion thing, but i liked them, i got a few laughs out of it, and i didnt find them particularly patronising or stupid.

So who should read this?

Anyone who is wanting an entertaining, and thought provoking read, without needing much (or any) knowledge in physics. This isnt a book you would read if you wanted to study the topics talked about within it- i also have some of those books, and they are heavier reading (obviously) but are far more in depth and informative. So if you are studying these topics, then skip this book and look elsewhere

rich

[bish]

Thanks for posting your review. It sounds like my kind of book, theory to make you think but not text book heavy.

[JB80]

It's a good book and that's a good, honest review too thanks for sharing.

I have the audiobook version of this and really I think I need a hard copy to let it sink in better, plus it's not the Hawkings voice that they used. I don't know why but I was expecting it.

Anyway thanks for the review and pushing my recollection, I'm going to order a hard copy now.