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The Sun is so powerful, so much bigger than us, that it is a terrifying subject. Yet though we depend on it, we take it for granted. Amazingly the first book of its kind, CHASING THE SUNis a cultural and scientific history of our relationship with the star that gives us life. Richard Cohen, applying the same mix of wide-ranging reference and intimate detail that won outstanding reviews for By the Sword, travels from the ancient Greek astronomers to modern-day solar scientists, from Stonehenge to Antarctica (site of the solar eclipse of 2003, when penguins were said to sing), Mexico's Aztecs to the Norwegian city of Tromso, where for two months of the year there is no Sun at all. He introduces us to the crucial 'sunspot cycle' in modern economics, the religious dances of Indian tribesmen, the histories of sundials and calendars, the plight of migrating birds, the latest theories of global warming, and Galileo recording his discoveries in code, for fear of persecution. And throughout, there is the rich Sun literature -- from the writings of Homer through Dante and Nietzsche to Keats, Shelley and beyond. Blindingly impressive and hugely readable, this is a tour de force of narrative non-fiction.… (more)
User reviews
Reading Chasing the Sun is like reading every web page ever written in one Wikipedia article. There is interesting information on every page and we are often taken down little off-piste runs that are just too fascinating to miss. Cohen wants to tell us everything and give his view on it, but he is definitely stronger on the arts than the sciences.
I think this bok ultimately tels us more about Cohen and his slightly mad obsession than it does about the subject. This is a fascinating and informative read, but eventualy overpowering if you sit in its glare for too long. Just like the Sun.
Cohen is comprehensive to a fault, but at the end it was strange to
The author includes some vignettes of his researches, such as seeing sunrise from Mt Fuji on the summer solstice, and these liven the text. Some seem to be a little forced - maybe the editor pushing the author? But there needs more of this to make the mountain of information more memorable and meaningful.
Read December 2014
I think I was hoping for more author personality. It felt a bit like falling down a Wikipedia similar article hole at times though this was certainly better researched than most wikipedia pages. The information was interesting and I found that it answered some questions I'd had jangling and jumbling at the back of my head for ages. I just wish certain chapters (really any of the sections pertaining to the arts) had more flavor. There's certainly a time for frankness in such a book but when it's billed as a 'grand tradition of the scholar-adventurer,' I do expect a bit of the personal add-in. There is the odd anecdote here and there but it wasn't the norm.
All in all, Cohen's undertaking is impressive and there's enough interest to get through the book. But there is the dry spot amidst the so-called epic-ness and a heavy chance of the odd skim-through.