Acquainted with the Night: Excursions Through the World After Dark |  | Author: Christopher Dewdney
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Seller: bay-city-books
Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 1119614
Media: Paperback
Pages: 288
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.6 x 1
ISBN: 1582345996
Dewey Decimal Number: 500
EAN: 9781582345994
ASIN: 1582345996
Publication Date: June 4, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In twelve chapters corresponding to the twelve hours of night, Christopher Dewdney illuminates night's central themes, including sunsets, nocturnal animals, bedtime stories, festivals of the night, fireworks, astronomy, nightclubs, sleep and dreams, the graveyard shift, the art of darkness, and endless nights. With infections curiosity, a lyrical, intimate tone, and an eye for nighttime beauties both natural and man-made, he paints a captivating portrait of our hours in darkness.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 6
 Magic Journey from Dusk to Dawn February 16, 2006
Xena
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
This highly unusual examination of the phases of night will ensure that never again will you be oblivious of them. The author begins with the three stages of twilight---civil twilight, nautical twilight, and astronomical twilight, and ends with first light, the beginning of dawn.
In between he takes you through all the phases humans have assigned to the hours: dinner hour, children's bedtime, fireworks festivals, ghost- walking hours. Then there are the natural ones, such as the hour the nocturnal animals come out, stages of sleep, the best times for astronomical observations.
He does this in a poetic and engaging way, for this is no dry recitation of facts. Each hour has its own delights, and he exults in celebrating them and saluting them.
My only caveat is that his 'hours' are based on a northern European/American rhythm of the day. For them, "It is 11 pm and a great many people are asleep"---but in Spain they are just sitting down to dinner! It helps to remember the great variety of human behaviors in just about everything.
Read this book and fall in love with night!
The Ultimate Night Book January 7, 2009
STwilight (Pennsylvania, USA)
An absolutely delightful book for those of us whose favorite time of day begins when the sun sets. Christopher does an excellent job of blending the world of science, culture, anthropology, history, astronomy and more to give the reader the most comprehensive book about night. It's very relaxing and gives the reader an excellent visual. The writer also blends some humor and personal experience. Very well done. Highly recommended for those who love night. The book will take you there.
Gorgeous writing; inelligent and full of poetry. June 20, 2004
Rachel Landau (Chicago, IL USA)
17 out of 18 found this review helpful
As a night owl and poetry-lover, I was intrigued by the title alone. Dewdney's writing is gorgeous: at turns it's funny, poignant, and illuminating. It's easy to tell the writer is a poet. At the same time, it's full of fascinating trivia and pieces of knowledge, covering history, physics, literature, astronomy, psychology, and philosophy.
Off we go, into the poetic dark... December 19, 2008
Lauren B. Davis (Princeton, New Jersey)
Wonderfully intriguing -- an invitation to take a journey through the 12 hours of darkness, with a trustworthy and wise guide. This book is like a curiosity cabinet -- full of delightful items you've probably never considered before, some of which go bump, and some of which entrance: sleep, murder, dreams, bats, goddesses, astronomy, a wide variety of nocturnal creatures, meditations on philosophy, science and literature -- all explored with a poet's sensibility. Dewdney's interests in things of the night is so far ranging that I suspect not every single thing in the book with interest every single reader, and but where else could you discover that we are most sensitive to dust at 11 p.m. or, discover that the Panzer divisions invading Poland were on methamphetamine, or hear a comet described thusly: "there is something fascinating yet unearthly and menacing about a comet, as if it were a cold, phosphorescent angel of calamity - it hangs in the sky like a beautiful jinx." Lovely. Now, grab your lantern and a pair of stout boots, it's time for a little nocturnal wandering...
 Enjoyable but... March 27, 2005
C. Reich (Northern, CA)
4 out of 10 found this review helpful
Ok, I did like this book. There were times, many times however, I wished it would drop the poetics and pick up the pace. There are many interesting FACTS in this book sprinkled through philosophy and poetics. Some of the potics just aren't that interesting to me. I'd say buy the paperback. It's a good decent book but not library worthy...read it and pass it on.
Chris
Showing reviews 1-5 of 6
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