With its origins in ancient India; Buddhism is a system of thought that has enriched the religious lives of billions--and in more recent times; swept through the Western world as well. Now anyone who wants to learn more about Buddhism can go directly to the source; with this collection of original documents--edited; with commentary; by a Cornell University professor of philosophy.
#1158481 in Books 2012-05-01Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.45 x 1.30 x 6.57l; 1.46 #File Name: 0434021083336 pages
Review
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful. Brief NarrativeBy H. PotterProspective buyers should know how slight this book is. The hardcover edition is 336 pages; but in the Kindle edition; about half of it is notes. Most of the text is narrative of the principal astronomical expeditions of 1761 and 1769; concentrating on the difficulty of traveling by ship; carriage; and sledge. The math and science involved are almost totally absent. Nor is there much discussion of the instruments and techniques used by the observers. You could get more science from the Wikipedia article about the transit of Venus and related articles about the astronomers and their instruments. So; although the book is well written; I can't really recommend it.1 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Inaccurate and non-compellingBy Aanel VictoriaI got bored with this and stopped reading. I found Mark Anderson's The Day the World Discovered the Sun: An Extraordinary Story of Scientific Adventure and the Race to Track the Transit of Venus much more compelling and much more accurate. Anderson is an astrophysicist and a born storyteller. Wulf is definitely not the former and I'm not sure she's the latter either. I'm saddened by the inaccuracies and glaring omissions; especially when I note that Wulf's latest book (as of this review); about Humboldt; just won the Royal Society science award. The poor quality and inaccuracy of this Venus book makes me worry about the accuracy and quality of the Humboldt book. It's one thing to be a celebrated author; it's another to trade on that celebrity to have one's books -- accurate or not -- become bestsellers and award-winners.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Interesting Stuff. More About the Process Than the Actual Science; Which is Nice.By E. KingWith the excitement of the solar eclipse and the transit of Venus which happened earlier in 2012; I wanted to read about what it was like before light; and telephones and cameras to rally scientists around the world for a once in a lifetime event. Captain Cook ventured to the South Seas in support of this event. It's an interesting read without getting bogged down in the science of the event. More about how do you cope with wars and weather and building telescopes and sailing (no planes!) for months to some remote island and hoping that the sky is clear enough to capture the event. Really pretty amazing stuff.
