Marcia BjornerudCritiques

In Timefulness, Marcia Bjornerud makes an impassioned and eloquent argument for developing a poly-temporal worldview of time. A concept she calls Timefulness. Bjornerud is cautious to avoid the trap timelessness that so many geologists fall into. She contends that timelessness falsely invokes a sense of permanency and sterile aspiration, when the Earth, in fact, is dynamic and in a constant never-ending state of change. That understanding timefulness better equips scientist to tackle the larger philosophical and practical questions posed by climate change. And that the practices of close reading and spatial visualization in geology provides material records that have documented many changes of our planet. Something that human beings are not been able to witness or experience. It is crucial that geologists take a more active role in public discourse to encourage the public to think more deeply about Earth’s multiple past and future iterations. She makes a compiling case that "fathoming deep is geology's greatest contribution to humanity".

It's a hopelessly romantic book, but If nothing else she has been able to articulate something I have found so difficult to explain. Rocks to a geologist aren't nouns they are verbs. They have stories to tell about the past and the future.

An excellent introduction to geology from the kind of teacher I wish I had in school. She is able to combine elements in unexpected ways to demonstrate a point: "Today, the descendants of some of these anaerobic organisms thrive in environments like swamps, the depths of stagnant water bodies, and the stomachs of ruminants like cattle, where the local environment more closely resembles Earth's early atmosphere." Statements like this certainly stay with you. Or the nominative determinism of: "Sedimentologists spend a lot of time disaggregating clastic sedimentary rocks and determining their grain sizes by passing the particles through ever-finer sieves. Appropriately, on of the leading sandstone experts of the last half century is Harvard's Raymond Siever.".
This book is recommended for people with some knowledge of science, but is an excellent introduction to geology and the history of our planet. This book is recomeneded for general collections, public libraries and high school and college libraries. I enjoyed it.

Well presented book on the history of the earth. This is presented in a manner that I wish my geology teachers had, with clearness and patience and fact. The reader may need an acquaintance with geology to fully understand this text, but even a high school or jr. high school class in earth science should be enough, Marcia Bjornerud has a comfortable style of writing that allows the reader to follow the thought. However, this is not a quick read, and is not recommended for beach reading. It is a think piece, and does requires the reader to pause and accept where the book has taken them.
An excellent book, and highly recommended for science buffs, public and school libraries, and general readers. Also for book clubs that like a review of the current science in a publicly available presentation.

I liked it.

reviews New Scientist

This is outstanding. With 5 years studying geology and 44 more years practicing geology, this book does the best job of chronologically documenting the history of earth, and human's affect on it. Within this book you will find the history of earth's natural resources and the changes in their uses for humans and their changing availability, even sustainability. Going a step further you will also learn the changing sustainability and value of our resources based on data, not arm waving.

The book is enlightening, thoughtful and truly based on proven fact, collected over centuries, agreed on by all who have looked at and studied the data gathered by numerous organizations worldwide. The book is thorough in its geology, and well balanced on the changes seen, measured, and reported on, that are underway on our earth today. The author points out how wise resource planning, which incorporates the geological record and its changes, could greatly affect our future quality of life on out planet.

This is a highly readable introduction to geology. Plenty of depth without being dry. The author's focus is on what the rocks tell us about the earth and the ways it has changed over time. I got it because it was recommended by the writer of the blog "En Tequila es Verdad", and I'm glad I did.

A small book that opens up the world of geology. Author includes a dictionary in the back to add in the understanding. With just a little geology knowledge the Earth opens up for you and you learn how to read it's history. So many rock formations, etc that just looked beautiful or even odd, now make more sense. I will definitely continue to learn more about the fascinating science.

An exceptionally good geology book that I recommend unreservedly.

What made this so engrossing was that rather than just telling us the currently understood structure and history of the earth, the author, much like Andrew Knoll, focusses on telling us how we know what we know.

My one suggestion is that you bail out about three pages before the second-to-last chapter. The last chapter, and the last few pages of the second-to-last chapter switch from this beautiful expository style to the usual round of ecological scolding about the state of the earth, material I mostly agree with but really don't want to read yet again.

This book explains many geology concepts with examples taken from everyday life. This book is thoughtfully written and a real pleasure to read.