Molehills Out of Mountains

Earth: An Intimate History by Richard Fortey

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


As much as I enjoyed his book on Trilobites and as interested as I am in geology, this meaty book was almost too much to handle (and I read John McPhee's Annals of the Former World. and ate it up - but, of course, that got a Pulitzer).  The literary quotations included, whilst showcasing Fortey's well-rounded education, were merely annoying and the one by D. H. Lawrence about a tortoise seemed pointless.  It took me months to read this because I had to mull over the material bit by bit to make sure I understood.  [Also, by the end I was hearing in my head Pwof. Bwyan M. Fagan weading it.] I was also disappointed in the bit about glass being a solid and yet a very, very slow-moving liquid, which I believe has been debunked - but what do I know?  [I only have a BA in Spanish. Carrumba.]
However, Fortey gives us just a taste of orogeny around the world and the make-up of the earth and only makes you want to go see it for yourself.  Of course, he also handily describes parts we will never see because they are too deep and, necessarily, hot.  I know from McPhee that there are scientists who do not subscribe to the tectonics gavotte of the plates, but none of that was brought up here.  Fortey does not eliminate controversy from the narrative.  I suspect that his trilobite hunting all over the world and other travels just made him more secure in that particular theory. 




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