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Living on Earth: Life, Consciousness and the Making of the Natural World by Peter Godfrey-Smith
aquariumgravelconnoisseur's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
1.5
It's not often someone flips open the first few pages of a book at the bookstore, see a discussion about cyanobacteria and gets excited. That did however happen a couple months ago and that instigator was me. The cover art for this book is AMAZING too which helped me ferry it over to the checkout counter.
Too bad the book sucked. The discussions about the mechanics of consciousness are somewhat interesting but never ended up connected before the author flies off a tangent at the end of each chapter hoping you didn't notice they didn't actually come up with a conclusion for the chapter let alone the book as a whole. Coupled with ending on some uninspiring musings about animal welfare and climate catastrophe that land squarely in strike zone of the Overton window that made me REALLY want to DNF, needless to say I will be admiring this authors books from afar next time I see one in Abbey's.
Too bad the book sucked. The discussions about the mechanics of consciousness are somewhat interesting but never ended up connected before the author flies off a tangent at the end of each chapter hoping you didn't notice they didn't actually come up with a conclusion for the chapter let alone the book as a whole. Coupled with ending on some uninspiring musings about animal welfare and climate catastrophe that land squarely in strike zone of the Overton window that made me REALLY want to DNF, needless to say I will be admiring this authors books from afar next time I see one in Abbey's.
win_monroe's review against another edition
2.0
I was a big fan of Peter Godfrey-Smith's book Other Minds, but found this one much less interesting. Other minds explored the evolution of intellegence, particularly that of octopi. In contrast, Living on Earth focuses on how life forms effected the planet. For example, the role of photophysensis in creating abundant oxygen create newer living possibilities. And of course, how humans have affected the planet, which includes climate change but also more broadly the type of animals and ecosystems we cultivate and so on. Godfrey-Smith continues to bring his interesting philosophical perpsective to all of these topics, but ultimately the book does not have the same wow factor that Other Minds did and while there is much to learn from it and could feel quite meandering at times.
4/10
4/10
maymei's review against another edition
4.0
What I loved most about this book was the writing style. It read like it was written by the fun college professor or a passionate friend. I think Godfrey-Smith will become one of the few non-fiction authors I follow.
There were times that made me question the age of the audience of the book because it would define what rust is or explain what photosynthesis and the mitochondria is multiple times. It works in talking about the horror/beauty in oxygen, but can be repetative. It did pay off, for example we all know about left-side right-side thinking, but using a picture to describe it made so much more sense.
It's the third installment, however it can be read out of order. Thank you #Netgalley in exchange for an honest review of #LivingOnEarth. 3.5/5 stars. Its approximately 200 pages for a quick read with lots of interesting facts/theories.
There were times that made me question the age of the audience of the book because it would define what rust is or explain what photosynthesis and the mitochondria is multiple times. It works in talking about the horror/beauty in oxygen, but can be repetative. It did pay off, for example we all know about left-side right-side thinking, but using a picture to describe it made so much more sense.
It's the third installment, however it can be read out of order. Thank you #Netgalley in exchange for an honest review of #LivingOnEarth. 3.5/5 stars. Its approximately 200 pages for a quick read with lots of interesting facts/theories.
bookdragon_sansan's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
4.75
readingsloph's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
2.25
I read 'Other minds' by this author and I really liked that one, but this one was such a miss for me. It was boring, I didn't learn anything, and there wasn't much to the topics that were discussed that hasn't been discussed better in other books.
eclasper's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
3.0
Lots of interesting facts and ideas to think about, but overall I don't know if it led to any larger point.Often repetitive and got really bogged down in philosophical digressions.