Tying Down the Wind: Adventures in the Worst Weather on Earth

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: Pinder's book is entertaining and educational! I love science, but most science books tend to be too boring and stuffy. Tying Down the Wind is filled with fascinating stories and facts. Do not be afraid of the genre. Both science "nerds" and science "lamens" will love this novel. I also found Pinder's writing to be beautiful. He writes like poetry, but the meaning is never lost. Even with the beautiful descriptions, anyone with a working brain will come away with this book with a vast increase in knowledge on the topic. I am now even more interested in science and weather because of this book!

Rating:
Summary: Awful!
Review: Rarely have I had the misfortune to read such a poorly written book. The author has put together an astonishing collection of trite and unoriginal descriptions of-what should have been-interesting weather phenomena. The writing is so flowery that if you were to eliminate all adjectives you would most likely be left with a book of less than ten pages. Hidden amongst the fluff is the occasional nugget of information, but it is quickly buried again lest the reader actually learn something.

An example: "If you grope for wind with your hand, it dodges and swivels, so that instead of catching the slippery essence of the atmosphere, you come up instead with a fistful of nothing. Wind wistles and mutters in a soft language full of vowels and sighs; it says little that we understand. The wind is alive but alien; it refuses to answer our questions, but asks many of its own."

Honestly, have you ever heard such drivel?

Rating:
Summary: Where was the editor of this book?
Review: This book was written with no table of contents in mind. It rambles. Seriously rambles. Some of his anecdotes are entertaining but you can literally open this book at any page and begin reading there. There is no beginning, middle, or end. After a while, it just stops. At least two thirds of this book has nothing to do with Mt. Washington but is anecdotes of his weather experiences throughout his life. Some images are quite pretty and poetic but I kept waiting for some structure to the book. Very disorganized and disappointing to me.