Marcia Bjornerud

In Timefulness, Marcia Bjornerud makes an impassioned and eloquent argument for developing a poly-temporal worldview of time. A concept she calls Timefulness. Bjornerud is cautious to avoid the trap timelessness that so many geologists fall into. She contends that timelessness falsely invokes a sense of permanency and sterile aspiration, when the Earth, in fact, is dynamic and in a constant never-ending state of change. That understanding timefulness better equips scientist to tackle the larger philosophical and practical questions posed by climate change. And that the practices of close reading and spatial visualization in geology provides material records that have documented many changes of our planet. Something that human beings are not been able to witness or experience. It is crucial that geologists take a more active role in public discourse to encourage the public to think more deeply about Earth’s multiple past and future iterations. She makes a compiling case that "fathoming deep is geology's greatest contribution to humanity".

It's a hopelessly romantic book, but If nothing else she has been able to articulate something I have found so difficult to explain. Rocks to a geologist aren't nouns they are verbs. They have stories to tell about the past and the future.… (meer)

An excellent introduction to geology from the kind of teacher I wish I had in school. She is able to combine elements in unexpected ways to demonstrate a point: "Today, the descendants of some of these anaerobic organisms thrive in environments like swamps, the depths of stagnant water bodies, and the stomachs of ruminants like cattle, where the local environment more closely resembles Earth's early atmosphere." Statements like this certainly stay with you. Or the nominative determinism of: "Sedimentologists spend a lot of time disaggregating clastic sedimentary rocks and determining their grain sizes by passing the particles through ever-finer sieves. Appropriately, on of the leading sandstone experts of the last half century is Harvard's Raymond Siever.".
This book is recommended for people with some knowledge of science, but is an excellent introduction to geology and the history of our planet. This book is recomeneded for general collections, public libraries and high school and college libraries. I enjoyed it.… (meer)

Well presented book on the history of the earth. This is presented in a manner that I wish my geology teachers had, with clearness and patience and fact. The reader may need an acquaintance with geology to fully understand this text, but even a high school or jr. high school class in earth science should be enough, Marcia Bjornerud has a comfortable style of writing that allows the reader to follow the thought. However, this is not a quick read, and is not recommended for beach reading. It is a think piece, and does requires the reader to pause and accept where the book has taken them.
An excellent book, and highly recommended for science buffs, public and school libraries, and general readers. Also for book clubs that like a review of the current science in a publicly available presentation.

I liked it.… (meer)