Timekeepers: How the World Became Obsessed with Time by Simon Garfield (PDF)

Description

By the bestselling author of Just My Type: a “thoroughly enjoyable and illuminating” journey into the concept of time “stuffed with fascinating material” (Observer, UK).Timekeepers is a book about our obsession with time and our desire to measure it, control it, sell it, film it, perform it, immortalize it and make it meaningful. In this fascinating, anecdotal exploration, award-winning author Simon Garfield has two simple intentions: to tell some illuminating stories, and to ask whether we have all gone completely nuts. Here, Garfield explores the nature of time through stories such as: the Beatles learning to be brilliant in an hour and a half; an Englishman arriving back from Calcutta, refusing to adjust his watch; Beethoven’s symphonic wishes being ignored; a US Senator’s speech that goes for 25 hours; the horrors of war frozen at the click of a camera; a woman who designs a ten-hour clock and reinvents the calendar; Roger Bannister living out the same four minutes over a lifetime; and a who prince attempts to stop time in its tracks.“Digressive, gossipy, thoughtful and thoroughly entertaining.”—The Sunday Times, UK

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Rather than try to conjure up some snazzy metaphor about time in this review, let me just say that I found it to be an enjoyable read. It covered a wide array of subjects in a surprisingly informative style, somewhat reminiscent of James Gleick’s “Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything,” from the late ‘90s. With due respect to several other reviewers, I found it neither rambling (although it did cover a wide swath of subject matter), nor overly “political.” It was just an enjoyable read.

⭐Most of us know that we live in an age dominated by time, but we may not know just how much that is the case—in “Timekeepers,” Simon Garfield notes that an Oxford English Dictionary survey found that time was the most-used noun in the English language. In this book, Garfield examines the concept of time over the past few centuries and how people have responded to it. There are those who have attempted to modify the calendar, and the railroads modernized the way Western societies observed time in the nineteenth century. Chapters on public speaking, music (live and recorded), music, movies, watchmaking, athletics, photography, manufacturing, time management, stock trading, and communities that attempt to live by a slower pace round out this absorbing look at the role of time in our lives.

⭐Interesting reading for everybody. It opens one’s sensory perceptions – eyes, ears etc. to register present events so one may store them as “the past”. The way we use time makes us and our lives interesting.

⭐Extremely well written. Instructive, historical in a easy to read style, all topped with a sophisticated sense of humor. A recommended read.

⭐This book ended at page 100 pages, but it kept going on and on and on. I blame the editor for this. He definitely did not read the book.

⭐I got halfway through and eventually was forced to read something else instead. The author simply can’t keep his partisan politics out of it, bending over backwards to virtue-signal and volunteer his opinions when it’s completely unnecessary, tying it back to his subject in the flimsiest of ways.

⭐Very interesting book, and not just about watches, but how time affects our entire lives A mustr read!.

⭐required

⭐I have enjoyed Simon Garfield’s earlier books on type and maps and was greatly looking forward to this.It is a good read, but not quite as good as those earlier books in my opinion. I am not sure the structure is as clear and part of the time thought he was writing it for the sake of it.The quality of the book itself leaves much to be desired for a hardback, with over large inside margins and relatively poor paper for a hard back book.

⭐Absolutely fascinating stories of the different ways in which mankind has dealt with the great mystery of time. I never knew, for example, that clocks in towns and cities all over Britain used to show different times, and that it was largely railways that brought some proper order into the system – timetables were pretty important! A great read.

⭐I found this book a bit heavy going. There were some interesting facts but a lot of padding surrounding them. I felt that it wasn’t really about our obsession with time, just a bunch of essays on subjects loosely related to time and timekeeping.

⭐Very interesting, not quite what I thought it would be but does make you rethink about our obsession with time. I might try leaving my watch at home and see what happens.

⭐Very thought provoking, if you can spare the time. I’ve recently purchased a hand wound watch, so I can be late with impunity.

Keywords

Free Download Timekeepers: How the World Became Obsessed with Time in PDF format
Timekeepers: How the World Became Obsessed with Time PDF Free Download
Download Timekeepers: How the World Became Obsessed with Time 2016 PDF Free
Timekeepers: How the World Became Obsessed with Time 2016 PDF Free Download
Download Timekeepers: How the World Became Obsessed with Time PDF
Free Download Ebook Timekeepers: How the World Became Obsessed with Time