Galileo Book

Actually this was an audiobook...and by the way, I hated the reader. He read with as much inflection as JLo in Maid in Manhattan...and pronouced "Washington" -- "War-shington" -- a personal peeve. I don't see a FREAKIN' R in there...

Other than that...this was really a good read. I learned an awful lot. Like did you know...the earth revolves AROUND the sun. I always thought we were riding on a back of a turtle.

Galileo was no saint...he was arrogant and persnickity...and petulant. He never forgot or forgave a wrong. He also was brilliant beyond comprehension. Oh, and he also screwed this dutchman out of being known as the first to inventthe telescope. (Read the book for the story)

The amazing number of his inventions boggle the head. He wrote, he explored, and he pushed forward science in great leaps. He found the moons of Jupiter, sunspots, and Saturn's rings (though he did think Saturn was three bodies in a weird alignment).

And he ticked off people, right and left.

Most notably and tragically the Jesuits, who saw his discussion of the two planetary systems (Platonic and Copernicus) as a way to seal his end. He was on house arrest for the rest of his life, after under threat of torture admitting to heresy for disobeying the church and promoting the helio-centric system.

This is a really great book, full of his own words (thankfully he wrote a lot). I may actually have to "read" the book in hard copy, just so I can get the narrators voice out of my freakin' head.