“Everyone is Interested in Pigeons”
Posted on | January 25, 2010 | No Comments
That is what Whitwell Elwin, editor of British journal Quarterly Review told Charles Darwin when he submitted “On the Origin of Species” for review. Elwin thought that the public would rather read about pigeons. What did he know.
Right now I am taking a break from reading Bill Bryson’s “A Short History of Nearly Everything”, and of course my favourite chapter is on Darwin.
Bryson has a knact for explaining everything in layman’s terms but in a highly enjoyable way. He starts with the Big Bang and ends with the possibilty of our fate going the way of the Dodo. On the way he discusses chemistry, paleontology, astronomy, particle physics, quantum mechanics, evolution and geology.
You might be thinking “ugh”, but Bryson’s writing style in relating personal stories about the people behind the discoveries makes this a highly readable book.
Darwin enjoyed every advantage of upbringing, but continually pained his widowed father with his lackluster academic performance. “You care for nothing but shooting , dogs, and rat-catching, and you will be a disgrace to yourself and all of your family” his father wrote in a line that nearly always appears just about here in any review of Darwin’s early life. Although his inclination was to natural history, for his father’s sake he tried to study medicine at Endinburgh University but could’t bear the blood and suffering. He tried law instead, but found that insupportably dull and finally managed, more or less by default, to acquire a degree in divinty from Cambridge.
Okay, I m heading back to finish it off.
Comments
Leave a Reply
