From My Bookshelf

I'm still feeling science-y, but I'm also feeling a bit hero-worship-y, so this week I chose a book that I've had for a very long time. No matter what happens with my other books, some into storage, some out of storage, this one always stays on the shelf.

Cosmos by Carl Sagan
   Wow, where do I start? This is the book that is the companion to the TV series, which came first. The series was where Carl Sagan got his reputation for saying 'billions and billions,' in that kind of sonorous way he had. He denied that he said it quite so much, but he really did say it a lot. I remember sitting, glued to the TV each week, as Dr. Sagan explained the universe and how it came about. To say I was entranced is to diminish the extent of my involvement in that show. I loved it, waited eagerly all week for it, devoured it when it was on-screen and missed it when it wasn't. It was an amazing achievement, one that still hasn't been matched in all the years since.
   The book is the TV series, just between two covers. After seeing how much I loved the TV series, my mother got me the book as soon as it came out; I think it may have cost her a membership to the local PBS station. Every few months I take the book down and read a bit of it, amazed by just how good it is, and how relevant it still is, decades on.
   Also, even though the book is credited to Dr. Sagan, and he lists Ann Druyan as a co-writer, this is as much her achievement as his. She was his wife and partner, and even though she's content to give full credit to him, Cosmos is easily half hers as well. Hers is the only name in the author's dedication.
   Go to the library, check it out, you'll love it as much as I do.

Quote:
"The Cosmos is all that ever was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us - there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries."