[b: A Magical World|24814|It's a Magical World|Bill Watterson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1437420710s/24814.jpg|25601] was not a bad book - don't get my rating wrong - it was simply not the book that I expected it to be based upon the title and description. I was expecting, and hoping, for a book about the history of superstitious thought and how it changed over time. I was expecting reference to the fairy faith, and the very different way that the world was viewed before the advent of the scientific revolution. I was hoping for the analysis of how one could contend with something being both a stone and a troll at the same time. A world where dragons and giants exist, but not here, simply the next valley over... that sort of thing.

Unfortunately, that very much was not what this book was.

This book, instead, was a very interesting look at the change in religious and scientific thought over the period before mentioned. Each chapter focused upon different people, offering small biographies and commentary on how they changed the world around them - whether they were accepted in their time or not, and how their beliefs and discoveries were informed by the time in which they live. While the book was fascinating, and indeed very interesting, it was also a bit dry in its delivery of facts and not what I had hoped it would be.

So, this is a good book for what it truly is, and an interesting one. Just not what I was looking for. Still, quite a nice history of church and science and how the two intersect. Also, a rather more detailed biography of Newton exists in it than what I had ever read before... and it did a good job of correcting commonly held beliefs about Galileo, Bruno, Newton, etc. that still get passed on today. So, kudos to it for that. ( )

hb