An entertaining read, written at a very accessible level (and before it was decided that math had to be banished from pop sci books.). It is perhaps too basic, if you have any physics/math/astronomy education. Worth 4 stars.

However: this book is now 60-ish years out of date, and it shows. There are several incorrect 'facts' and several own questions now answered. Science! ( )

I am now over eighty years of age, an emeritus Professor of Physical Chemistry. I read this book over seventy years ago, and remember it clearly to this day. While it was hardly a "how-to" book, it inspired me toward a life of science. I was fortunate enough to meet Gamov in the late 1960's, when he gave a seminar at University of California-Irvine and I tried to express my appreciation for his work in the popularization of science and his influence on me. His hand-drawn illustrations are as witty as the text. ( )

This one really whetted my interest in astronomy. ( )

Want to see how science has changed in the last 60 years? In the words of the author, this tome leaves "no subject untouched". ( )

[about 2/3 of the way through; not sure whether I'll finish]

There's some interesting stuff in here, but it's marred by too many flaws.

On topics too complicated to explain fully, Gamow presents chains of reasoning that don't make sense in the absence of whatever additional evidence is left unspoken. (There's probably no perfect way of handling this, but in my opinion it's much better to acknowledge the gaps than to pretend you're walking the reader through a series of logical deductions.)

On topics that I'm unfamiliar with but capable of understanding (random thermal motion, diffusion) I find his explanations unnecessarily confusing.

And on a topic that I do understand (basic probability) he gets at least one thing badly wrong.

As for the style, it's fairly readable, but not to my taste. Perhaps it's standard mid-20th century American prose (it does feel somewhat familiar) but to me it reads like an awkward compromise between stuffy 19th-century English and patronisingly folksy children's edu-tainment. (That makes it sound worse than it is; it's really not terrible.) I was also frustrated by the use of imperial units, and more importantly the absence of scientific notation for very large or small numbers. (Writing out numbers like "one hundred millionths of an inch" is a bad idea, especially when it turns out to be a typo for "one hundred-millionth of an inch".)

Obviously some of these gripes are subjective, but not all. So I don't understand why this book has such a good reputation, not just as a nostalgic favourite but as a classic worth reading today. I don't recommend it. ( )