The Pinball Effect: Journeys Through Knowledge - The Extraordinary Patterns of Change That Link Past, Present, and Future

Rating:
Summary: Much better than his connections program.
Review: Of course, everyone knows before we start this book that everything is connected in several ways to everything else. The Real skill is in finding these connections and telling about them in an interesting way. Well James Burke as editor, does this with great skill. I first read the book straight through. Then I came back and read with the hyper-links. Sure enough, you get different perspectives. Then you add the links that he did not think of. I am ready for the next book.
By the way, James Burke was not the first to think this way. You should really read "The Ascent of Man" by Jacob Bronowski ISBN: 0316109339. It was used as a Humanities course in a local joiner collage.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting
Review: This is a very intriguing and interesting book, but is rather dull and boring at points. I recommend buying it if you really like the author or books of this genre, I bought it on a whim and didn't like it. I think if you like similar books, you will love this one.

Rating:
Summary: Very inventive style but TMI
Review: This is an ingenious ways of writing a book but it borders more on a way of storing information. It is not the type of book that you read from cover to cover although you could that if you wanted to. It is essentially cross-referenced with itself. What is does is talk about a particular advancement or invention, providing page numbers in the margins for other advancements or inventions that that one enabled. You can bounce all through the book this way - hence the name of the book. It is very interesting but there is a certain amount of information overload. I kept wondering 'How does he know all of this stuff?'.

Rating:
Summary: Very inventive style but TMI
Review: This is an ingenious ways of writing a book but it borders more on a way of storing information. It is not the type of book that you read from cover to cover although you could that if you wanted to. It is essentially cross-referenced with itself. What is does is talk about a particular advancement or invention, providing page numbers in the margins for other advancements or inventions that that one enabled. You can bounce all through the book this way - hence the name of the book. It is very interesting but there is a certain amount of information overload. I kept wondering 'How does he know all of this stuff?'.