Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth
“A gleeful, poetic book. . . . Like the best natural histories, Dirt is a kind of prayer.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review “You are about to read a lot about dirt, which no one knows very much about.” So begins the cult classic that brings mystery and magic to “that stuff that won’t come off your...
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“A gleeful, poetic book. . . . Like the best natural histories, Dirt is a kind of prayer.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review “You are about to read a lot about dirt, which no one knows very much about.” So begins the cult classic that brings mystery and magic to “that stuff that won’t come off your collar.” John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Saint Phocas, Darwin, and Virgil parade through this thought-provoking work, taking their place next to the dung beetle, the compost heap, dowsing, historical farming, and the microscopic biota that till the soil. With fresh eyes and heartfelt reverence, William Bryant Logan variously observes, “There is glamour to the study of rock”; “The most mysterious place on Earth is right beneath our feet”; and “Dirt is the gift of each to all.” Whether Logan is traversing the far reaches of the cosmos or plowing through our planet’s crust, his delightful, elegant, and surprisingly soulful meditations greatly enrich our concept of “dirt,” that substance from which we all arise and to which we all must return.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780393329476 (039332947X)
Publish date: January 17th 2007
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Pages no: 224
Edition language: English
I was looking for a book that explained what dirt/soil is, how it forms, it's various components and how these affect plants and animals etc. In short, a science book. Well, this isn't that book. This book was a collection of short, disjointed, memoir-type stories of the author's encounters with ...
Some information packed between annoyingly smarmy hippy-ass rhapsodizing about compost. It's cool, yes, but just not as beautiful as the author wants us to believe.