Is An Immense World Worth Reading?
by Ed Yong
Ada’s Score
Ed Yong's 2022 landmark explores the concept of Umwelt — the unique sensory world each animal inhabits — through dozens of creatures whose experience of reality is radically unlike our own: the electric fields sensed by sharks, the magnetic compass of birds, the ultraviolet vision of butterflies. Yong writes with infectious wonder and rigorous scientific grounding, building a portrait of Earth as a planet of unimaginably diverse inner lives. The book ultimately asks us to practise a kind of radical sensory humility. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction.
Episode 4“Yong dismantles your comfortable assumptions about reality with glee. A book that genuinely expands your world.”
The Universe You've Never Sensed
Ed Yong introduces us to the concept of the umwelt — each animal's unique sensory bubble — and then blows every one of those bubbles wide open, from electric fish to dogs who navigate by smell to birds who see magnetic fields. It is genuinely humbling to realize how narrow our own slice of reality is, and how impossibly rich the world is beyond it. I kept putting this book down just to look around me and wonder what I was missing.
Ada Brief
AI reading intelligence“Yong dismantles your comfortable assumptions about reality with glee. A book that genuinely expands your world.”
The Universe You've Never Sensed
Ed Yong introduces us to the concept of the umwelt — each animal's unique sensory bubble — and then blows every one of those bubbles wide open, from electric fish to dogs who navigate by smell to birds who see magnetic fields. It is genuinely humbling to realize how narrow our own slice of reality is, and how impossibly rich the world is beyond it. I kept putting this book down just to look around me and wonder what I was missing.
Book Details
- Publisher
- Random House Publishing Group
- Published
- January 1, 2023
- Language
- ENG
Get This Book
Affiliate linksISBN: 9780593133255
Disclosure: ReadAda earns a commission on purchases made through these links, at no extra cost to you.
Ada’s Score
4.8
Ada’s editorial score — not an aggregate of reader reviews.
Common Questions About An Immense World
- Is An Immense World worth reading?
- Yong dismantles your comfortable assumptions about reality with glee. A book that genuinely expands your world. Ada rates it 4.8 out of 5.
Ada also recommends
More from Science & Nature
The Wreck of the Mentor
Eric Jay Dolin
Ada’s Score
The Way Things Work: Newly Revised Edition
David Macaulay
Ada’s Score
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Bill Bryson
Ada’s Score
The Selfish Gene
Richard Dawkins
Ada’s Score
The Sixth Extinction
Elizabeth Kolbert
Ada’s Score