haven't read a book this fast in a while

Front/Back Stuff:

When i looked at the bibliography for this book, i seemed to forget for a second that it was a fictional novel (well kind of but you get what i mean). I just mean that the shear size of the thing, almost 40 pages long, is not something that you would expect to find in a book like this. I think it goes to show the iffy fiction idea that the novel holds. The beginning pretty much sums it up by saying, in short, "this is fiction, with respect to the people and events, Micheal made them up, but there is a pretty good chance that the events are real, but again, this is fiction" It seems as though Crichton understands that most people don't want to read a scientific article about global warming, they don't want to stare at graphs all day. But by making the issue into a complete story, it will not only spread easier, but people will understand the issue much better.

Inside Text:

I found the following passage to be interesting because it brings into light how exact wording of an issue can affect the way it is understood.

pg.102

(Evans talking)

"global warming is, uh, the heating up of the surface of the earth from the excess of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that is produced by burning fossil fuels."

"no......global warming is a theory that increased levels of carbon dioxide and certain other gases area causing the increase in the average temperature of the earth's atmosphere"

It is interesting that by just adding in a few different words the whole thing becomes completely different. I am definitely not one to choose my words carefully, but maybe i should think more about that .......

Term from Science Studies:

The whole layout of the book in general seems to be a giant hybrid, maybe more so the beginning than later, but still seems to be true throughout. Crichton gives a small story of one problem, then flies across the world (sometimes literally) to give another piece of the issue. Sometimes the events seem linear and connected, sometimes not. I just can't help but thinking of a giant web (cliche i know). Moving from Iceland to LA to stories about submarines, to companies based all over the world, to weird paths of money through different companies based in different countries. I don't know, the whole thing in general makes me pretty happy that i deal with simple numbers and equations for a large portion of my life. would hate to have to figure out how things like this area actually connected in the world.

Literary Studies:

Maybe it is because i have't read an actual novel in a long time, but i think he does a good job and narrating different characters very quickly and precisely. Even when they are only in the book for a short time, he does a good job at painting a good picture for what the peoples personalities would be like. Almost like from a few simple pages of conversation one could extrapolate how they would respond to a wide range of situations bases on their "two page personality assessment" But again, there is a very good chance i think that because i haven't really had many chances to read books not based on some physics equation of math proof