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Built to Last: John McPhee's Way of Seeing
- EamonnMR 8y agoMcPhee is one of those are authors who can make science approachable and at the same time, the everyday people around it deeply fascinating. To HN readers I would recommend The Curve of Binding Energy or Annals of the Former World.
- CPLX 8y agoAnnals of the Former World is incredible. The topic is so dry, it's about rocks, but his writing so so compelling it propels you forward into the story. I kept finding myself wondering why I was finding it interesting, since by all rights it shouldn't be, but somehow he draws you in.
- hcrisp 8y agoI enjoyed Curve of Binding Energy, and also Coming Into The Country, which is about the history, people, and geography of Alaska. Lots of interesting anecdotes: tourists fishing in pristine rivers, prospectors panning for gold using bulldozers, wilderness-seekers struggling to surviving the brutal winters off-grid. I also learned that Juneau may be the wind-whipped capital but it is really more similar to warmer parts of Canada. Anchorage is the grimy urban center, a port city more deserving of Alaskan fame. Neither really represent the forbidding interior of the state.
- sizzzzlerz 8y agomy favorite non-fiction writer. with the exception of Annals, i've read and enjoyed everything he has written. i didn't that one because i read all four of the books that make it up. i just reserved the patch at my library.
- EamonnMR 8y agoIf you've read his other books but not Annals, you may have missed out on the final essay: Crossing the Craton which is about the oldest rock on the continent.
- sizzzzlerz 8y agoI didn't know that. I'll check it out.
- Wistar 8y agoMy older brother, a journalist and writer, introduced me to McPhee when I was in my teens by having me read A Room Full of Hovings. I am a fan of most of his work but his profile of Thomas Hoving is my all-time favorite.
- acomjean 8y agoI like his books. His writing style is good and a little dry. I sometime long for some diagrams and illustrations as trying to describe things in words sometimes can be difficult. For example : The descriptions of the lock and dams that keep the Mississippi being taken over by the Atchafalaya in text were good, but I found that a digram can be very illustrative.
- byproxy 8y agoI've only read "Assembling California", but I agree. I'll add, though, the dry-ness is offset with a bit of wit. A deadpan humor, almost. I enjoyed it and I'm sure I'll make my way through some more of his works.
- cjarrett 8y agoHis 'Encounters with the Archdruid' was on the reading list on my Environmental Literature course. Funny enough, I had already read it a few years prior after grabbing it off of my father's bookshelf. If you are in any way interested in the sport of Tennis, I cannot recommend his 'Levels of the Game' more. It focuses on Arthur Ashe and Clark Graebner, but uses their history to paint a much bigger story.