The Invention of Nature

As I read about Humboldt's journeys, I was reminded of Will Farrell in the movie “Elf” telling the story of traveling through the gumdrop forest: the book is written for a 13 year old. It's got a total golly-gee tone, and could dispense with about every other sentence.

Everyone knows the amazon jungle is hot & humid, ok? Or when we are told Humboldt thought about something, e.g., electricity, he saw a mysterious force, and we hear nothing more.

The description of his relationship with Goethe did neither man a service. Again, reads like some sort of YA tale.

In short, there is very little intellectual depth or revelation here. It's just a storybook.

Gave up after 5 chapters. Two stars because it's not awful, it's just awfully dull and not very insightful.

I'd really give this more of a 3.5 - a fascinating book about a man I knew nothing about (and I suspect many others are the same). To me, the most interesting parts were the ones detailing his adventures in South America, and how he impacted George Perkins Marsh, Ernst Haeckl, and John Muir. There was a lot in the middle of the book, coinciding with AH's middle age, that was honestly a slog. Also, the way that Wulf uses (or doesn't use) commas just bothers the crap out of me for some reason.

I enjoyed this book! Not too deep but enough detail to give you a sense of the man, his interests, and his impact on the world of his time and it's ongoing effect around me today.

I found a kindred spirit; I've always been driven by a need to see and experience new things and I love a wide variety of science topics, and nature. I can't say this might have been me because I never had the desire to actually dive into the proving of hypothesis and the research itself.

Tento rok jsem měl příležitost číst dvě biografie. Jedna vypráví život Elona Muska a druhá (tato) zachycuje život Alexandra von Humboldta. Obě jsou vynikající. Oba hrdinové mají pár společných věcí (snahu chránit přírodu), ale v tuto chvíli Alexander von Humboldt v mnohém předčí Muska (ten však má ještě hodně před sebou). Vůbec se nedivím, že Alexander inspiroval šlechtice, prezidenty, vědce i básníky, že na něj žárlil i samotný Napoleon, že inspiroval Darwina k plavbě na Beagle, a že Jules Verne vlastnil mnoho jeho knih. I mě samotného v mnohém inspiroval a toužím si přečíst některé z jeho děl. Pro mě je překvapením, že se o takové světové osobnosti dovídám až z této knihy. Rozhodně je to kniha, která patří do seznamu “must read”, protože si člověk uvědomí, jak mu příroda mizí před očima a neváží si toho, co nám dala.