Measuring the World

Two self-absorbed men set out on individual scientific quests, one mathematical and one botanical/cartographical. They both accomplish scientific things, are rude and selfish as often as possible, and are always tedious. In fact, they come off as completely flat, unreal characters, a feeling that is heightened by the author's blunt and choppy writing style and the almost complete lack of dialog throughout the book.

The inability of Humboldt and Gauss to understand the people around them - and their complete interest in trying - made me completely uninterested in finding out what happens to them. Book tossed aside in supreme irritation.