Acquainted with the Night: Excursions Through the World After Dark
by Christopher Dewdney
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Book Summary Information
Author: Christopher DewdneyEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2005-06-04
ISBN: 1582345996
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Book Reviews of Acquainted with the Night: Excursions Through the World After Dark
Book Review: Magic Journey from Dusk to Dawn
Summary: 5 Stars
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!
Summary of Acquainted with the Night: Excursions Through the World After Dark
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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