Customer Reviews

The Friendly Guide to the Universe: A Down-to-Earth Tour of Space, Time, and the Wonders of the Cosmos (The Friendly Shakespeare)

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What a great book for anyone that has even the slightest interest in space, physics, or just how in the heck everything got here! She takes difficult subjects and breaks them down into interesting "fun facts" that anyone can appreciate and understand. It's simply impossible to not share something out of this book if someone else is in the room while you're reading it!

I originally took this book out of the library when it came out in hardcover as I'm a long-time been a space buff and fan of science fiction but had never really studied any of the science behind it. I had always found astronomy pretty dull, but this book completely changed my views on the subject. Hathaway has a wonderfully light writing style with just enough of a comic touch to keep this book continually amusing. I've since bought my own copy and keep it our on my shelf of books to flip through on a regular basis. It's a must read for any SF fan who wants to know what your favorite characters are talking about and the sectons on the history of astronomy are great as well (especially when she talks about all of the truly bizzare things that people have believed over the ages). This is a great book that makes you fall in love with the wonder of space.

A Friendly Guide is fabulous! I have read it several times in the several years that I've owned it (and I rarely read anything I don't have to!). Nancy Hathaway devides and subdevides astronomy into small enough bits and mixes enough wit to make it easier to understand for those who don't know much astronomy. The small subsections also make it possible to read for us who do know something about astronomy but are pressed for time.

Nancy does an admirable job pulling together exrtremely interesting ideas on her topics! The book is organized so as to be quick to find your topic and easy to continue reading related topics if you choose. Lots of b&w pics and orgaized tables. Works well for finding background info for teaching astronomy topics to all ages. Thanks Nancy!

I picked this one up on the strength of the previous "Friendly Guide" (The Friendly Guide to Shakespeare), and was not disappointed. While Hathaway's book is ostensibly about the universe, and does contain quite a bit of information about the subject, a better description might be "Lives of the Astronomers." From Copernicus to Hawking, Hathaway tours the universe by taking a time trip through the many advances of astronomy. Like the guide to Shakespeare, the chapters are short, and sidebars abound. I spent about three months working my way through the book, reading a section or two a night. While it isn't a substitute for Astronomy 301 (the math quotient was thankfully low), this is a nice book for those of us who like to know a little about a lot.

I loved this book! I read it when it was first published, and I was just getting interested in astronomy. Full of facts and interesting tidbits for the novice, with references for further reading. I liked the drawings, and the literary quotes on things celestial that started each chapter.