Timekeepers: How the World Became Obsessed With Time by Simon Garfield
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Published in the UK in 2016, this is due to be published in the U.S> in 2019, and I got a review copy from NetGalley.
Garfield writes a easy read, smoothly transitioning between his explorations of how we observe, mark, display, portray, are influenced by, and bound to time. From faster ways of getting to one place from another (speed records of trains in the 19th century), timing of Beethoven’s symphonies, breaking a four minute “barrier” (I detest that term in its colloquial context, but whether sensational or lazy on the part of writers, it’s a common fallback) for a human mile-runner, time management, movie-making, historically long speeches…there’s something here that should interest just about anyone. Of course, there are elements that are not of interest to everyone (which some readers/reviewers lazily identify themselves as “bored”) – details of watchmaking probably don’t hold as much fascination for others as they do for me.
I think there is a good deal more exploration and Garfield did a very good job with his.
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