And what they want, apparently, is 470-page treatises on the scientific and philosophical underpinnings of naturalism. To appear soon in the Newspaper of Record:
Happy also to see great science books like Lab Girl and Seven Brief Lessons on Physics make the NYT best-seller list. See? Science isn’t so scary at all.
Nice to see.
Congrats! Well deserved, and I hope all those who read it draw inspiration and an appreciation of the wonder of the Cosmos.
b&
Dear Sean,
Congratulations! I am enjoying reading The Big Picture. Should be finishing any day now. Thanks!
-Demetris
I am enjoying reading this book as much as I enjoyed his other books and Teaching Company courses and lectures on youtube. Retirement allows me to learn what I want to know rather than what I have to know. It’s fun to fantasize meeting Sean Carroll some day to discuss dark matter and dark energy over a casual meal.
I had always been a fan of yours, Sean!
Congratulations! It’s been great to see your continued success ever since I used your (very good) GR notes when I was in grad school.
Am loving reading it, but only part way through.
I have to assume you’ve seen this but in the off chance you have not, check out:
Entropic Time!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6rVHr6OwjI&list=RDi6rVHr6OwjI#t=235
Will there be an audiobook? Perhaps, self read?
To mint a turnabout: a fame a dozen. Congrats!
Congrats!
Great! Keep up the good work!
I’m an Australian Kindle user, so I’ll add my praise in August when it’s finally released here.
Those are some slow bits 🙁
Good work. Still waiting for my copy, which I ordered three weeks ago.
I gotta say the list was an awesome help in my trying to understand what I am and my place and yours(!) in this Universe with spooky perfect numbers and this being the (again spooky) Goldie Locks time, when matterand energy are just right, and somehow after over 5 billion yeears we have a solar system and homo sapiens sapiens (recursion required!)
Congratulation Sean.
I’m also hoping the book in the number 1 spot is actually about Quaternions !!
Sean, will you hit the lecture circuit in conjunction with this book?
I’m enjoying the book. Reading the kindle version. Love your work and your perspectives.
My local B&N (all of them, maybe) are featuring it on the “Books Dad Will Love” display. I hope the moms will, too!
Just finished the audiobook…..it was….fantastic!
Again, I know you’ve commented that perhaps you’ve gotten a bit of blowback from a few who think you might be outside your depth in going this far, but I don’t agree…
As someone who was raised in a religious home and with family and friends from that time period who are still firmly ensconced in that ontology, I find this effort of such great importance. I am ten years on from my conversion to naturalism and find it interesting how, as you note, humanity is really beginning to grow up a bit…
These are generational change issues, humanities maturation will still take a good number of years. But this book is such a solid compendium of foundational points around which humanity can complete that process…
There have been efforts in the past, by Dawkins, Hitchens, etc… But as I commented elsewhere, those were slightly more anti-religious screeds, whereas this book is simply a “bootstrap ontology” where you build literally from the ground up.
Rather than focusing on negating religious arguments, you simply build a comprehensive, coherent picture of the way things are….and that is ever so powerful.
Especially given that, to help humanity mature, I think the focus needs to be on getting this message and concept out there to make it more mainstream and attractive to people seeking and building their own ontologies….
The Dawkins/Hitchens (which I did enjoy) almost set their sights on people with already firmly held beliefs/ontologies. Well, those are “lost causes” and poking those bears is not effective…
Anyhow, this would be a great required text for HS seniors….
Great work!! Can’t wait to listen again….
Congrats, Sean!
But … have you actually read Lab Girl? The abysmal way that Jahren talks about her students — that spoiled it for me. Can’t imagine you ever saying similar things….
hi sean – oh come on, that’s a sublist of science non-fiction. Tell me this, what new publication in that genre didn’t make the list?