Jeff
Stewart
I’m
torn by this book.
I would really like to have liked it a lot; i’m
not certain, however, that i can report that i did. Also
find i’m torn in deciding who the target audience is; i cannot tell
if it is really, as i assumed upon beginning, intended for the
intelligent adult with little particular physical knowledge but a
sufficiency to understand the complex concepts presented, or if it
should be read by children ~ teenagers, perhaps ~ who are learning
science for the first time. Both seem to be possible
interpretations.
To go back to my first point: Though i would have liked to
have liked it, there were several issues that i found interrupting
mine enjoyment of Why
Balloons Rise.
For example, though he generally did a good job of building on the
previous concepts he had introduced, i found at least a couple of
occasions when Stewart seemed to bring something in that i ought to
have known (and probably actually do) but that he had no reason to
assume i knew based on his apparent assumptions about his readers.
In the end, the pleasure i get from reading about things i don’t
know or don’t fully understand, attempting to further my knowledge
a little, outweighs the annoyance (it didn’t really rise to the
level of aggravation) i found in the writing style and lack of focus.
A near run thing, however, and i’m not certain i’d pick up
another book based purely on the name of the author; it would have to
depend partly, as well, on the subject matter, if it looked
interesting, a subject i wanted to learn more about.
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