The Grand Design

Fascinating. Got six poems out of one page, on the holographic principle, and they were snatched by an editor for publication. Shows how powerful the ideas described in this book are.

I do regret that almost all books on physics feel it necessary to take you through the history of the subject. The history doesn’t change dramatically, so they’re covering the same ground that once you’ve read before, which doesn’t actually change or offer you anything significantly new. I’d like a book by someone as knowledgeable about contemporary ideas to concentrate on those contemporary ideas, and perhaps simply recommend a standard book for people new to the subject to bring themselves up to speed.

But this book, when it gets beyond what tiddle–taddle did to the turtle to accidentally discover electric shocks, is gloriously fascinating, and communicates complex and rich ideas in such a breathlessly easy way that people like me can pick them up and run with them … admittedly straight in front of the nearest conceptual bus, but what the heck.

Loved it, will read it again.