About Time

If you enjoy technology and history, don't let my 3-star rating stop you from reading this book. It had a couple of chapters that I found to be absolute gems.

My biggest critique of David Rooney's About Time is that it could've used more polishing and editing. The narrative waffled between how clocks impacted civilization and Rooney's personal viewpoint (almost to being preachy). I'd rather it had stayed unbiased but I do appreciate Rooney is an expert in his field and of all people he'd have insight to share.

I found the chapter “Empires” (clock #6) absolutely fascinating and wish more of the book had gone into the technical details this one did about time-syncing and navigation. And for the same reasons the chapter “War” (clock #11) had the same effect on me.

Would have enjoyed more technical descriptions of how clocks work along with the history provided.