JAMES GLEICK is our leading chronicler of science
and technology, and the author of Chaos and Genius, both
nominated for the National Book Award, and Isaac Newton, which was
shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize. His books have been
translated into thirty languages.
www.around.com
“Magnificent…this elegant, insightful study reminds us that we have
always been adrift in an incomprehensible universe.” –Los Angeles
Times, Best Books of 2011
“Grand, lucid and awe-inspiring…information is about a lot more
than what human beings have to say to each other. It’s the very
stuff of reality, and never have its mysteries been offered up with
more elegance or aplomb.” –Salon, Best of 2011
“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
“Ambitious, illuminating and sexily theoretical.” –New York
Times
“Gleick does what only the best science writers can do: take a
subject of which most of us are only peripherally aware and put it
at the center of the universe.” –Time
"The Information isn't just a natural history of a powerful idea;
it embodies and transmits that idea, it is a vector for its memes .
. . and it is a toolkit for disassembling the world. It is a book
that vibrates with excitement." --Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing
“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.” —The Wall
Street Journal
“Extraordinary in its sweep . . . Gleick’s story is beautifully
told, extensively sourced, and continually surprising.” —The Boston
Globe
“Audacious. . . . Like the best college courses: challenging but
rewarding.” —USA Today
“Challenging and important. . . . This intellectual history
is intoxicating—thanks to Gleick’s clear mind, magpie-styled
research and explanatory verve.” —The Plain Dealer
“Gleick’s skill as an explicator of counterintuitive concepts makes
the chapters on logic . . . brim with tension.” —The Oregonian
“The Information puts our modern ‘information revolution’ in
context, helping us appreciate the many information revolutions
that preceded and enable it. The internet certainly has changed
things, but Gleick shows that it has changed only what has already
changed many times before. . . . His enthusiam is contagious.” —New
Scientist
“Impressively, reassuringly, Gleick’s substantial, dense book comes
as close as anything of late to satiating [the] twin demand for
knowledge and clarity.” —The Irish Times
“This is a work of rare penetration, a true history of ideas
whose witty and determined treatment of its material brings clarity
to a complex subject.” —The Daily Telegraph (London)
“The page-turner you never knew you desperately wanted to read.”
—The Stranger
“To grasp what information truly means—to explain why it is shaping
up as a unifying principle of science—Gleick has to embrace
linguistics, logic, telecommunications, codes, computing,
mathematics, philosophy, cosmology, quantum theory and genetics. .
. . There are few writers who could accomplish this with such
panache and authority. Gleick, whose 1987 work Chaos helped to
kickstart the era of modern popular science, is one.” —The Observer
(London)
“Enlightening. . . . Engagingly assembled.” —Nature
“ Mesmerizing. . . . As a celebration of human ingenuity, The
Information is a deeply hopeful book.” —Nicholas Carr, The Daily
Beast
“An amazing erudite and yet highly readable account of why and how
information plays such a central role in all our lives, Gleick’s
The Information is amongst the most profound books written about
technology over the last few years.” —TechCrunch TV
“The web Gleick has woven is a rare one, a whole that envelops and
exceeds its many parts, which certainly suits his topic. His
contribution—too easily underrated in a work that synthesizes the
ideas of others—lies in linking fields of science that aren’t
connected in a formal sense. By the close of the book you cannot
think of information as you might have before.” —Tim Wu, Slate
“[Gleick] is wrestling with truly profound material, and so will
the reader. This is not a book you will race through on a single
plane trip. It is a slow, satisfying meal.” —David Shenk, Columbia
Journalism Review
“Gleick connects the dots that connect information to us, and there
are many dots. . . . Here in one volume is the great story of the
most important element at work in the world, and its story is well
told. I had forgotten what a fantastic stylist Gleick is. It’s a
joy to read him talking about anything.” —Kevin Kelly, The
Technium
“Packed with the rich history of human thought and communication
through the ages.” —PopMatters
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.
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