David A. Rothery

This little book was better that I expected, I had a clear idea of something just to find that my approach for understanding geology and observing my environment was hopeless, I came to realize this after reading the first two or three chapters: to understand the world throughout Geology, the focus is set first oon the big picture, and then zooming into details, this was major breakout in my own study, that was based on the study of isolated samples and absorbing petrology. Thanks to the show more mindset update I could make sense of things I couldn't in my explorations.

But not all was that easy; certain chapters felt overwhelming like when explaining folding and fractures, the chapter on metamorphic rocks and the layering patterns of sedimentary rocks was more dense that the chapter dedicated to igneous rocks. The description of magma excursions and the whole concept of partial melting still haunts me.

At the end of every chapter a little questionaire and a further reading list is provided, which is good for self learners.

I liked this book and I highly recommend it for it also is greatly inexpensive. show less

I didn’t like this as much as I expected to.

Having done an online course about moons led by David Rothery, who was engaging and entertaining in the videos, I thought his upbeat approach would be apparent in his literature. Instead, I found his style rather dull, not helped by the amount of maths and tables involved – most things numerical leave me scratching my head.

The subject interests me but the way facts and speculations are presented bored me a lot of the time. At times, though, I show more was engaged, hence why I’ve rated “Planets” three stars. show less

Interesting stuff, solving various questions I'd always had. But I'm glad it's a very short introduction. I'm not sure I'd be interested in a long one.

A good bare-bones sort of book. The writing is informative, but not especially engaging. It begins with an overviews of the earth's composition, discusses plate tectonics, etc. Ilustrations are black and white drawings, but definitely get the job done of clarifying concepts.