etc.

This is one of those books that I felt I should have enjoyed more and was disappointed that I didn’t. More disappointed with myself than with the author in fact. It’s about a map drawn by William Smith in 1815 that illustrated the geology of the British Isles, the first of its kind that, as indicated by the title, marked the beginnings of the science of geology. The book is laden with Eureka!-type discoveries of the sorts of things we take for granted (like the existence of fossilized organic matter in rocks that were previously considered pure mineral) since we live in a time when much of the geology of our planet has long been demystified. If you’re more into this sort of thing than I am, you will probably like this book more than I did. While it is entertaining in a lot of parts (I’m sort of glad I chose to listen to it rather than read it) & accessible in many, I think I was probably looking for more of William Smith and less of The Birth of Modern Geology.
Addendum 14.01.03: Faced with a week of long, snowy drives to and from work and all my other audiobook choices still on hold and not yet forthcoming from the public library, I decided to listen to this book again. I enjoyed it much more the second time around and felt a moral obligation to make that known here, lest someone was discouraged from reading it based on my initial review. Winchester is a careful and impeccable historian with a delightfully abundant vocabulary that’s never superfluous, as a large vocabulary can sometimes be (you know, never use a $10 word when a 50¢ word will do) and he is more than generous in his treatment of William Smith, a man who seemed pompous and self-important a lot of the time. Liking this book the second time around sort of proved the veracity of that adage about reading a book you like at least 3 times and one you dislike at least twice.