The author of the bestsellers "Chaos" and "Genius" presents his crowning work: a revelatory chronicle that shows how information has become the modern era's defining quality--the blood, the fuel, the vital principle of our world.

Reviews

Gleick chronicles the story of information and how it has transformed human thought and life, covering quantum mechanics, the structure of DNA, and more. Rob Shapiro's narration effortlessly guides listeners through this dense material and renders it accessible to science and technology enthusiasts and general readers alike. (LJ 7/11) (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Overwhelmed as we are with today's unceasing gush of information-some essential, some useless, and much falling into the broad middle of the spectrum-a study of how we got here and the innovators who played a part in creating the dazzling web of contemporary communications could not be more timely. Gleick's survey of pioneers of information, from Alan Turing to Claude Shannon, follows the many-layered strands forming the information superhighway. Rob Shapiro, slightly nasal, reads in measured fashion, pausing luxuriously between sentences and paragraphs to allow Gleick's own gush of information to sink in. Shapiro's stateliness makes for an artful contrast with Gleick's study of go-go modernity; listening to the audiobook manages to not add to the feeling of being overwhelmed. A Pantheon hardcover. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

"With his ability to synthesize mounds of details and to tell rich stories, Gleick ably leads us on a journey from one form of communicating information to another." -"Publishers Weekly, "Top 100 Books of 2011
"So ambitious, illuminating and sexily theoretical that it will amount to aspirational reading for many of those who have the mettle to tackle it..."The Information" is to the nature, history and significance of data what the beach is to sand." -"New York Times "
"[A] tour de force...This is intellectual history of tremendous verve, insight, and significance. Unfailingly spirited, often poetic, Gleick recharges our astonishment over the complexity and resonance of the digital sphere and ponders our hunger for connectedness...Destined to be a science classic, best-seller Gleick's dynamic history of information will be one of the biggest nonfiction books of the year." -"Booklist," starred review
"With his brilliant ability to synthesize mounds of details and to tell rich stories, Gleick leads us on a journey from one form of communication information to another...Gleick's exceptional history of culture concludes that information is indeed the blood, the fuel, and the vital principle on which our world runs." -"Publishers Weekly, "starred review
"Rich and fascinating." -"Washington Post
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"No author is better equipped for such a wide- ranging tour than Mr. Gleick. Some writers excel at crafting a historical narrative, others at elucidating esoteric theories, still others at humanizing scientists. Mr. Gleick is a master of all these skills." -"Wall Street Journal"
"Gleick presses rousing tales from the history of human communication into the service of one Very Big Idea...he does what only the best science writers can: take a subject of which most of us are only peripherally aware and put it at the center of the universe." -"Time"
"A wide-ranging, deeply researched and delightfully engaging history..." -"Los Ange