JFH

A terrific book with lots of stuff I never knew

Revisado: 09-13-21

Johnson has done a wonderful job of telling why life expectancy as doubled since the mid 1830's. start with an English aristocrat who was based in Istanbul and learned the rest of the world had already discovered a cure for smallpox, which was then refined to the point that smallpox, once one of the major killers of mankind, has now been eradicated worldwide. Many other interesting stories, including the development of statistical methods that ended a cholera epidemic in London when traced back to a single well. Every chapter has dozens of stories I never heard before. And Johnson, unlike some other authors who insist on reading their own books, is a terrific story teller. Highly recommended.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Should have been a magazine article

Revisado: 01-29-20

A mildly interesting story of a pushy engineer who insisted lunar orbit was the only way to get quickly to the moon. In fact, other than some comprehensive calculations that showed this was the only way, his contribution was just insistence to other people. Way too much repetition, could easily have been cut in half without losing anything. We know very little about the man other than his stubbornness -- his wife didn't even know what he did with NASA.
Also the unnecessary music often makes it difficult to hear what is going on underneath.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

You would do better with the video version

Revisado: 06-30-19

The Great Courses offer many courses in both audio and video. Sometimes the video portions of a lecture are of minor importance and the audio serves perfectly well. In this course, there are many instances where I wish I could have seen what Professor Kung was doing, including graphic representations of tones and overtones.
Professor Kung states at the beginning that a large part of the course will be devoted to understanding the mathematical formulas that can be used to described various aspects of music, especially the use of sines, cosines, and various sophisticated mathematical formulas. These are very hard to follow in the audio, although they can be seen in the course book. I really wasn't much interested in the math, but that's my own choice. Others might really enjoy it.
All that being said, I still give the course a 3. Kung has lots of interesting and understandable information and I am glad I waded through it. If I had a better knowledge of math and had seen it on video, I am sure it would have rated a 5.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 16 personas

At least you could skip pages with the actual book

Revisado: 06-23-19

Most reviews are awed by the terrible things that may happen. I'm not disputing that they might. But listening to repetition after repetition, by a boring reader, maybe me stop after one hour. I kept fast forwarding thinking the delivery/editing would get better,and finally gave up.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Disappointing and poorly read rehash

Revisado: 05-12-17

This a reading of some 15 articles by McCullough, many of them quite old and uninteresting today. Perhaps 5 are worth listening to, involving interesting forgotten figures. I found myself frequently hitting fast forward. To make matters worse, McCullough's once gray voice has faded to a mumble.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 37 personas