Thank you so much to net galley for sending me a copy of this book it gave me truly so much to think about and I am grateful! I would recommend if you ever think even a little about time.

I learned so many interesting things in this! I had never really considered the history of time-keeping before, but there are a lot of interesting facts and tidbits here. Orzel makes the book very readable, and I loved the narrator. Highly recommend.

9/10

This was an interested book to listen to. I think the audio version was a great route to go as it covers complex topics.

I found this book extremely interesting. From sundials to alarm clocks to cell phones the way we keep time has changed but time itself hasn’t and I found the history of it so very entertaining. I thought the narrator was awesome and that always makes for a great audiobook. This book covers the evolution of time keeping in the world. From before we all had the same time to the use of the Gregorian calendar and more. I highly recommend this book if you love history, you’ll love this book. I received this book from NetGalley and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Please forgive any mistakes in the review I am blind and dictate most of it but all opinions are my own.

A Brief History of Timekeeping
The Science of Marking Time, from Stonehenge to Atomic Clocks
by Chad Orzel
Narrated by Mike Lenz

I received a digital copy of this audiobook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Have you ever wanted to take a semester long college course on the history and science of time keeping? Then this is definitely the book for you. Complete with anecdotes and jokes referencing the author/professors academic and personal life. It genuinely made me feel like I was back in grad school. Complete with jokes that fell a little flat. I’m going to give the benefit of the doubt and assume this was more due to the lack of passion in the subject matter evidenced in the narrators reading. He spoke clearly and well and with some fairly animated inflection for not being the author but this is no Neil DeGrasse Tyson, which really who is? It does make me wonder if the audiobook had been read by the author who must be enthusiastic about the subject matter to have written a book, that perhaps that would have been an improvement? Though likely no one can live up to the standard set by Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

All of that is to say the reading was a little dry so I would not advise listening while driving long distances and tired. However the subject was very interesting and I did enjoy all of the information presented as I’m always eager to learn. I would recommend this book to someone truly interested in the knowledge and not just casually consuming “pop science”.
Overall - 4/5

If you enjoy learning the history of why we do things a certain way today, in this case how we track time, i recommend reading this book. This an amazingly informative but easily understandable book. Discussing time keeping, calendars and the social construct of time to name a few.

The only thing missing from the audio book is visuals. I would love this to be made into a show similar to Cosmos by Neil DeGrasse Tyson as that is what this book reminded me of.

I plan on reading Chad Orzel's other books.

Thank you to NetGalley and HighBridge Audio for an advanced audiobook for review.

A Brief History of Timekeeping: The Science of Marking Time, from Stonehenge to Atomic Clocks was written by Chad Orzel and narrated by Mike Lenz. Predating written language and marching on through human history, the desire for ever-better timekeeping has spurred technological innovation and sparked theories that radically reshaped our understanding of the universe and our place in it. Chad Orzel, a physicist and bestselling author, continues his tradition of demystifying thorny scientific concepts by using the clocks and calendars central to our everyday activities as a jumping-off point to explore the science underlying the ways we keep track of our time. Ancient solstice markers depend on the basic astrophysics of our solar system; mechanical clocks owe their development to Newtonian physics; and the ultra-precise atomic timekeeping that enables GPS hinges on the predictable oddities of quantum mechanics. Along the way, Orzel visits the delicate negotiations involved in Gregorian calendar reform, the intricate and entirely unique system employed by the Maya, and how the problem of synchronizing clocks at different locations ultimately required us to abandon the idea of time as an absolute and universal quantity. Sharp and engaging, A Brief History of Timekeeping is a story not just about the science of sundials, sandglasses, and mechanical clocks, but also the politics of calendars and time zones, the philosophy of measurement, and the nature of space and time itself.

A Brief History of Timekeeping is a thorough and fascinating description about how people throughout history have calculated, marked, and understood time. I thought that the history of calendars, clocks, and all the theories and math that surround them was well explained and that the information about the people involved, and the day to day aspects, made it more accessible. I will admit that there were moments deep into the numbers of physics that I felt a bit over my head, I think that if I had the print version of the book to look at the charts and calculations rather than listening to the numbers being read off it might have felt slightly easier to follow. I think the narrator did a great job of conveying the information with good tone and inflection, as I do not think I could have made it through the more complicated bits if the narrator had been less skilled. I liked the honesty and humor that came into play on occasion- acknowledging that many of the calendar and time decisions were based on politics as much as math and practicality. I also liked that the author disclosed any connection to certain figures in the history, to avoid any potential claims of favor. I thought the book as a whole was interesting, well balanced, and informative. I even gained a new favorite word- perturbation.

A Brief History of Timekeeping is an informative and engaging look at the history of how people have looked at time.

Good book, though too advanced for my ears - I was definitely not the right audience for it lol

Author really knows a lot about the subject, and is really passionate about teaching it. I was very entertained on the beginning, and the narration is very well done. However, around the middle it becomes very complex for people who don't know lots about physics - or had been years that they studied so its all forgotten as in my case lol. The fact that I chose to listen to it as an audiobook also did not help, and I found myself only half listening for most of the second half, paying attention only on the parts that were more history instead of physics focused. I believe - though the narrator does a great job as mentioned before - that I would probably have understood more if I had read the physical version. It was very hard to keep up with the scientific part in the audio form.

Overall, I would recommend for people that has a grasp of physics.

A Brief History of Timekeeping
by Chad Orzel
Pub Date: 25 Jan 2022

This audiobook was exactly as it presented, a brief history about how humans have practiced the art and science of keeping time. It was good background learning whilst I completed my weekend chores. The narrator's voice was pleasant and soothing.

Thank you to Netgalley & HighBridge for the advanced listening copy.

#netgalley #ABriefHistoryOfTimeKeeping #audiobook #highbridge #audio #book #time #history #nerdalert

This nonfiction book explores the history of how humans have measured time from solar days to hourglasses to mechanical timepieces to quartz chronometers to atomic clocks.

A few things I found interesting:
*How some societies/cultures favor solar calendars while other prefer lunar calendars.
*The Mayans had a very intricate calendar system.
* Pendulum clocks don’t work while at sea.
*Railroad companies had a big influence over time standardization in the U.S.
*The official reason Arizona doesn’t follow Daylight Savings is that having an extra hour of daylight during summer in the desert does not conserve energy.

Chad Orzel is a physics professor at Union College in Schenectady, New York and he used one of his classes as a framework for this book. As such, you can expect lots of historical figures and ideas from astronomy and physics as well as descriptions of physics concepts that can be applied to measuring time. Be prepared to spend some quality time with Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Tycho Brahe, and the Mayans.

First of all, two words on the title of this work: first, don't confuse brief with simple. This book is definitely dense and in-depth. Second, I'm not sure that I agree with using the word brief at all! Again, it's pretty deep stuff. That being said, the content is well-written and quite interesting, especially if you have an interest in time or any of its related disciplines.

I find this topic interesting, but the writing style was quite dull. I didn't finish this.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

I received an advance copy of this book from Net Gallery in exchange for an honest review.

Boy, do I have mixed feelings about this book. I picked it up because I enjoy trade books about science and learning about parts of science in which I am not an expert. However, I drastically underestimated the extent to which my enjoyment of this book would rely on interest in astronomy and physics. In retrospect, sure, it makes sense that those would be important elements of the story of the history of timekeeping, but I didn't recognize that going in, and there wasn't really anything that would've warned me of it before launching in.

Sadly, it turns out that my interest in astronomy and physics was not nearly sufficient to sustain me through this book, so that it felt like a duty, like self-imposed homework--and not the kind I could look forward to-- to finish. If I hadn't committed to review it, I'd have bailed.

That said, it's not a bad book. It's well-written and informative; I learned a lot. The author is engaging. Someone who *were* interested in astronomy and physics would probably really enjoy this book. I'm just not the right audience for it.

If you ever had any questions about the origins of timekeeping, and how we ended up with a 12-month calendar consisting of 365 days and an additional “leap year” day added every four years, then this book is for you.

Honestly, this is the most detailed, interesting, thorough and chronological discussion on the topic of time that I have ever read, and I learned a lot in the process.

My only complaint is that it didn’t come as advertised, as the audiobook was not that “brief” – all kidding aside, I thought this book was excellent.

I certainly agree with a statement from the book description: the time you spend reading this book is certain to be well spent.

Thank you to Netgalley for the free review copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

I finally gave up around 70%. I kept trying to restart and just couldn't take anymore.

This book started out strong and interesting, then devolved into a tired, over-told generic telling of the history of physics that I hard an extremely hard "time" connecting to anything to do with timekeeping. This seems like a classic case of "I had a good idea, but not enough to write an entire book on it." When the author started name-dropping alumni from his college connections during his side-bars into the irrelevant and referencing other books with suspiciously similar titles, I began to wonder if my time might be better spent on one of those books.

An editor could have taken out several hundred pages... and possibly had the author add a few that were on topic.

Audiobook copy provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

As with most non-fiction works, this book is about exactly what the title says it is. This book is a comprehensive look at the history of timekeeping and the various methods and devices that people have used to track the passage of time over history. It goes into the theory behind why these devices and methods worked as clocks/time keeping methods and how people came to discover/use them. It also goes into all of the things that an accurate knowledge of time makes possible.

The main reason that this book interested me so much is that I am time blind. For anyone that doesn't know what that means, I am almost completely unable to perceive the passage of time around me. It is nearly impossible for me to remember when events in my past have happened (even if it was a major life changer) and I have a very difficult time keeping up with how quickly time elapses on a daily basis. It is also very difficult for me to keep track of the time scale of things that are going to happen in the future. As a result time and the various ways it can be kept track of has always been an interest of mine.

I really liked the first I'm going to say 75% of this book. I loved reading about this history of solstice markers and the beginnings of astronomy/astrology. Water clocks and the start of mechanical clocks was fascinating. As was the history of map making. Things started going downhill for me when the topic changed to physics, relativity, and the modern atomic clock. I told a couple of my friends that I went from being super entertained to feeling like I was sitting through a high leveled physics lecture. It goes very in depth into the topic and I'm not ashamed to admit that most of it went very far over my head. I think that this section would be much more enjoyable for someone that already has a background in science and physics in particular. As someone who doesn't know much about the topic this was my least favorite section of the book.

Even though I have issues with the more science heavy sections of the book toward the end, I genuinely loved reading this. It is very well researched and written. I learned a lot of things that I had no idea about before I found this book. Overall I highly recommend this for non-fiction readers and fans of scientific books also.

A Brief History of Timekeeping: The Science of Marking Time, from Stonehenge to Atomic Clocks by Chad Orzel is a top-level overview of the ways humanity has kept track of time, primarily in chronological order.

Orzel clearly knows what he's talking about. From the broad overviews down to the specific examples, his history of clockwork and timekeeping is well-researched. His knowledge really shines, though, when we get to the back half of the book and move from discussions about calendars and astrological date keeping to mechanical clocks and the science of time. His experience as a physicist really comes off the page.

That being said, I really thought the book took a step down once it got into the science of timekeeping. The science portion is still relevant to the history of timekeeping, yes, and it's decently interesting stuff, but the whole tone changes. We go from a broad overview of the history of how and why people kept time and the differences in their methods and motivations to a detailed and focused look into the science of how recently modern and modern clocks keep time. There's a difference in tone and a difference in subject. This portion of the book, primarily the last few chapters, felt weaker to me than the early parts of the book.

Orzel does a solid job of both presenting the methods and history of how time was kept as well as presenting likely motivations for competing systems. The best example of this is his time spent writing about calendrical systems used by humanity throughout the past and how they came to be. The political and religious motivations were explained in a fascinating way, as well.

Overall, if you have questions about a specific era and how exactly people, from the rich to the poor to the urban to the rural, kept time, you may want to look for something more specific. If you want a decent outline of how timekeeping evolved, as well as thoughts and conceptions of time itself, this is a good book to pick up.