{"id":3981,"date":"2009-08-14T09:07:39","date_gmt":"2009-08-14T09:07:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/principles\/2009\/08\/14\/book-report-blurb-tastic\/"},"modified":"2009-08-14T09:07:39","modified_gmt":"2009-08-14T09:07:39","slug":"book-report-blurb-tastic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/2009\/08\/14\/book-report-blurb-tastic\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Report: Blurb-tastic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A cosmologist, a science writer, three best-selling science fiction authors, a best-selling mystery novelist, and a Nobel laureate walk into a bar&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Oh, wait, that&#8217;s not the opening to a joke. That&#8217;s the list of people who have provided blurbs for <a href=\"http:\/\/dogphysics.com\">my book<\/a>&#8230; Kind of an eclectic bunch, but I&#8217;m pretty psyched. I&#8217;m not quite sure why the final list of blurbs gets locked in this early&#8211; we don&#8217;t even have the cover copy written yet&#8211; but it&#8217;s set now, and they look pretty good:<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Chad Orzel teases out the mysterious and seemingly incomprehensible side of advanced physics and makes it comprehensible via one-sided monologues to even the most distractible: dogs, humans, and in my case even disdainful felines or somewhat puzzled infants.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8212;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.tobiasbuckell.com\/\">Tobias Buckell<\/a>, author of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Cole-Protocol-Halo-Tobias-Buckell\/dp\/076531570X\"><cite>HALO: The Cole Protocol<\/cite><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve long believed that everyone should be familiar with the wonders of quantum mechanics. I had no idea that &#8216;everyone&#8217; would include dogs! Chad Orzel&#8217;s book is a fast-moving and fun introduction to some of the deepest mysteries of modern physics. And Emmy is a star.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8212; Sean Carroll, author of <a href=\"http:\/\/preposterousuniverse.com\/eternitytohere\/\"><cite>From Eternity to Here<\/cite><\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/cosmicvariance\/\">Cosmic Variance<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Quantum physics is perhaps the most interesting and slipperiest scientific subject; who knew that Socratic discussion with an adorable dog was the key to unraveling it?&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8212; Cory Doctorow, author of <a href=\"http:\/\/craphound.com\/littlebrother\/\"><cite>Little Brother<\/cite><\/a> and co-editor of <a href=\"http:\/\/boingboing.net\/\">Boing Boing<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Orzel&#8217;s whimsical take on quantum physics is a delight, and Emmy is the perfect Everyman, posing the questions we&#8217;d all like to ask about the intricacies of this most esoteric of subjects.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8212; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jenniferouellette-writes.com\/index.html\">Jennifer Ouellette<\/a>, author of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jenniferouellette-writes.com\/Buffyverse.html\"><cite>The Physics of the Buffyverse<\/cite><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This charming little book is both a light-hearted and amusing way for laypeople to learn about one of the strangest and most important aspects of modern science and a great resource for practicing &#8220;quantum mechanics&#8221; who want new ideas on how to more effectively explain their work to the public.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8212;<a href=\"http:\/\/physics.nist.gov\/Divisions\/Div842\/Gp4\/group4.html\">William D. Phillips,<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/nobelprize.org\/nobel_prizes\/physics\/laureates\/1997\/index.html\">1997 Nobel Prize in Physics<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Thanks to Chad Orzel and his endearing mutt Emmy, I finally understand Heisenberg&#8217;s Uncertainty Principle! Not to mention a few crucial ideas that Emmy grasped perhaps more quickly than I.  How to Teach Physics to Your Dog is a blessing for all those who never mastered &#8211; or maybe even had the faintest glimmer about &#8211; modern physics. I can&#8217;t be the only one.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8212; Spencer Quinn, author of <a href=\"http:\/\/books.simonandschuster.com\/Dog-On-It\/Spencer-Quinn\/9781416585831\"><cite>Dog On It<\/cite><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My dog Kodi tells me that Chad Orzel explains physics with far more clarity and humor than I ever did, and that now she&#8217;s just keeping me around for my opposable thumbs. Thanks a lot, Chad.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8212;<a href=\"http:\/\/whatever.scalzi.com\/\">John Scalzi<\/a>, author of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Old-Mans-War-John-Scalzi\/dp\/0765348276\/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1\"><cite>Old Man&#8217;s War<\/cite><\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Rough-Guide-Universe-Reference\/dp\/1843538008\/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_9\"><cite>The Rough Guide to the Universe<\/cite><\/a><\/p>\n<p>(Those are alphabetical by the author&#8217;s last name, which produces a nicely random effect.)<\/p>\n<p>If that makes you want to buy a copy right away, it&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/How-Teach-Physics-Your-Dog\/dp\/1416572287\">available for pre-order<\/a>. Of course, the important thing at this point isn&#8217;t whether they work to make blog readers buy copies from Amazon, but whether they work to make the buyers for Borders and Barnes and Noble want to order mass quantities&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A cosmologist, a science writer, three best-selling science fiction authors, a best-selling mystery novelist, and a Nobel laureate walk into a bar&#8211; Oh, wait, that&#8217;s not the opening to a joke. That&#8217;s the list of people who have provided blurbs for my book&#8230; Kind of an eclectic bunch, but I&#8217;m pretty psyched. I&#8217;m not quite&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/2009\/08\/14\/book-report-blurb-tastic\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Book Report: Blurb-tastic<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,7,51,61,132],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book_writing","category-physics","category-physics_books","category-physics_with_emmy","category-publicity","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3981\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}