Reality is Not What it Seems - Carlo Rovelli

“Do space and time truly exist? What is reality made of? Can we understand its deep texture? Scientist Carlo Rovelli has spent his whole life exploring these questions and pushing the boundaries of what we know. In this mind-expanding book, he shows how our understanding of reality has changed throughout centuries, from Democritus to loop quantum gravity. Taking us on a wondrous journey, he invites us to imagine a whole new world where black holes are waiting to explode, spacetime is made up of grains, and infinity does not exist -- a vast universe still largely undiscovered.”

This book was exceedingly interesting and a great introduction to a subject I knew very little to nothing about. I read a few reviews before I bought it and each one praised his “poetic” writing. I personally didn’t find this book to be very poetic at all. That isn’t precisely a bad thing just something I wanted to make clear.

It is well written, making complex concepts understandable to a layperson and someone of my age.  Metaphors where employed well to bring concepts into real life and I really appreciated the non-mathematical focus. 

Harking back to the ancient Greeks felt at first out of place, but was actually very insightful and made me re-mourn the loss of the Library of Alexandria. 

Over all a brilliant book for anyone that wants to be introduced gently to this subject. Covers enough ground for you too feel like you learn something and leave just enough for you to want to learn more yourself. I found myself furiously YouTubing other concepts during the reading of this book. 

Age Rating 14+. While accessible still is definitely higher grade so avoid this book unless you want to get frustrated, unless of course you are a wunderkind.