3.07.2012

Ungle Tungsten by Oliver Sacks: A Review

This book was a fascinating look into the history of alchemy and chemistry with little snippets of Oliver Sacks's life as a boy living in England. When I checked out the book, I was under the impression that it would mostly be about Oliver Sacks. His works on the brain are fascinating and I wanted to learn more about him. However, the book is 75% chemical history and 25% biography, and that's why it took me so long to read (2 months!). Details about the periodic table are interesting, but only in small doses. Every time I told Jess I had read the book during my day, he'd reply, "Oh, then you took a nap today." And every time he said that, he was right. The book put me to sleep a number of times, but still I enjoyed trying to remember everything I learned in my inorganic chemistry classes to understand what Oliver Sacks was saying. As a boy, he was literally addicted to chemistry and all of it's parts, memorizing the periodic table and the like. So, to sum up: It was a neat peek into Mr. Sacks's life, and a cool look into chemistry, but I'd suggest only reading if you really are into that stuff.

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