Crack in the edge of the world

As they slowly cooled, some of these rocks-to-be separated themselves out, according to perfectly understandable laws of physics: The lighter materials of the scum rose to the surface, the heavier ones passed downward in one enormous fractionating column—a little like the Skaergaard, though over infinitely longer periods of time and under very different physical conditions The lighter materials generally formed themselves into those rocks we now call granites—the course-grained rocks that tend to be prettily light in color as well as in constitution The heavier fractions created layers of rocks like basalt and diorite and gabbro, which were darker and tended to sag downward under the force of gravity forming sloughs, whereas the granites tended to form uplands.

Dark rocks underlay the seas; granites made up the new continents. And this law of basic igneous geology has remained a verifiable truth ever since. The new crust, as it spread and wafted itself around the surface of the sphere, also became cracked, as cooling crusts of clinker and furnace slag are wont to do, and the plates, or rafts, or slabs of floating or sagging clinker that were then formed between the cracks began to swirl about, thanks to the currents of terrifyingly hot material that were as they still are today upwelling and sinking back underneath.

No doubt the slaggy scum came under the influence of other forces. The third planet from sun, it must be remembered, is in geological terms a comparatively small ball of material, subject to all manner of kinetic and thermal influences; and the first continent-in-the making was turned this and that for millions of years, as it struggled gamely to get a grip on itself and remain more or less in place on the ever-changing molten mantle that underlay it.

Winchester takes a circuitous route to San Fran but I just loved the journey. Not for everyone but worked for me. Good account of the earthquake and the aftermath. Oh, and he leaves us with a warning about the super-volcanic hot spot beneath Yellowstone, actually the cycle for this one to blow is due anytime. Just great fun reading! View all 8 comments. This is a mostly delightful tour of geology, earthquakes and plate tectonics, with an emphasis on California's infamous San Andreas Fault and the earthquake that devastated San Francisco.

I can highly recommend it. Much to the delight of info gluttons, Winchester as always ranges widely from the nominal focus of the book. Any reader looking for an in-depth history of the whys and wherefores of the earthquake and fire will be more than satisfied, as well anyone wondering about the broader sur This is a mostly delightful tour of geology, earthquakes and plate tectonics, with an emphasis on California's infamous San Andreas Fault and the earthquake that devastated San Francisco.

Any reader looking for an in-depth history of the whys and wherefores of the earthquake and fire will be more than satisfied, as well anyone wondering about the broader surrounding topics.

Of course, if you want your author to go straight to the heart of the matter, this isn't your book and, furthermore, you really should forego any of Winchester's books.

By the way, this book was more personal to me than to most of you out there: I've lived in San Francisco for almost my entire adult life, and I'm a third-generation Californian and almost a third-generation San Franciscan. I've backpacked for many years in the Sierras, thrown up millions of years ago by the mechanisms he describes in the book, and I felt connected to every scene he describes in the city.

Still, my reaction to this book isn't unalloyed praise. I think there were several false notes. The more obvious one was the connection to Pentecostalism. I agree it was an important phenomena of the time — actually, I wouldn't be here if my mother's parents hadn't found each other while attending a Pentecostal church during the depression. But the movement almost certainly would have taken off with or without San Francisco's earthquake; that kind of exuberant religiosity seems to be a fundamental part of U.

Despite the specific anecdotes that tie the two stories together, I felt it was really a post hoc, ergo propter hoc kind of connection, and detrimental to the book's focus. The other significant annoyance was that several times the author referred to San Francisco and other places in close proximity to the fault as "very dangerous".

Now, maybe when the Big One hits I'll change my tune, but substantially fewer than Californians have died in earthquakes in the past century. As I'm writing this at the end of April , and the New York Times just reminded me that three years after the Loma Prieta earthquake which killed 63 in the region , Los Angeles lived through the Rodney King riots, which killed And, of course, at least 15 and possibly many more have just died in the explosion of a fertilizer company in Texas.

Frankly, life is dangerous; everyone dies in the end. Living in an earthquake zone does slightly raise the likelihood of dying prematurely or being seriously injured , but there are many, many other factors that affect mortality rates even more. Coastal California — right along the San Andeas Fault — has a famously benign climate, for example.

I suspect the overall health of the locals is higher because of it, and probably lengthens their life expectancy more than the earthquake risk shortens it. Winchester even makes fun of the residents of Portola Valley , a town that lies directly upon the fault line — amused at how they argue endlessly about whether and where to move this building or that, only to go back to sipping their sauvignon blanc.

He agrees that their "way of life [is] quite unrivaled in its quality anywhere in the world", yet still thinks that there can be "no greater monument to hubris" that the choose to live there. I suppose he really thinks they'd be better off somewhere else, but I think there's a lot of hubris in his assertion that he is right and several million residents of the San Francisco Bay Area are being irrational.

Perhaps he should have asked the scientists at the Menlo Park's USGS — the same folks he thanks for helping in his studies. After all, their office is on alluvial soil about eight miles from Portola Valley, and they undoubtedly live in the area. It apparently did not occur to Winchester to ask them what they feel about that risk. I'll take the certitude of a quake and its consequent increase in my mortality over living elsewhere, thank you.

Jun 13, James Peavler rated it liked it Shelves: This book only gets a three from me because I felt it was falsely advertised. As a Bay Area native, earthquakes have always held a strong fascination for me.

I experienced a fairly large one in , and my memories are still as strong today as they were then. So when I pick up a book that gives me an impression that its about the year , and the seismic activity that occurred all around the world that year, ending with the ultimate seismic event near the shores of San Francisco, it was disco This book only gets a three from me because I felt it was falsely advertised.

So when I pick up a book that gives me an impression that its about the year , and the seismic activity that occurred all around the world that year, ending with the ultimate seismic event near the shores of San Francisco, it was disconcerting to read about the geologic history of the earth. As fascinating as that was, when over half the book is about the formation of the earth and the world as we now know it, and the Great Earthquake of seems to be almost an afterthought for the final or so pages.

It's a time in California history that I find enthralling, and was nestled in my bed ready to read about how the ground rolled and the buildings fell and fires consumed, yet I had to dredge through why Iceland is where it is and why dirt in Japan is related to dirt in Africa. Believe me, it was interesting, but when you pick up a book expecting one thing and read another, it's a disappointing experience. By the time I actually reached the earthquake in San Francisco, I could have cared less at that point.

I just wanted to be done with the book. Now I'm surprised to see so many people who didn't like this book, but I'm guessing it's more a matter of style. Winchester certainly does take his time getting to the San Francisco part of this book but it is " America and the Great California Earthquake However, it's the kind of book I like, much more about "why" and "how" rather than "who" and "when".

I would recommend it, especially if you liked "Krakat Now I'm surprised to see so many people who didn't like this book, but I'm guessing it's more a matter of style. I would recommend it, especially if you liked "Krakatoa". It takes Winchester nearly pages to get into the meat of the story -- the Earthquake that destroyed San Francisco.

Until then, we have to wade through tales of his Oxford days and camping on Mt. A tough read that brings little joy -- although he does capture the sense of magic we all feel when discovering, and re-discovering, San Francisco. Some exerpts: "There is a tendency common to most of us to take the more modest of our landscapes for granted. We see a wide and fertile plai It takes Winchester nearly pages to get into the meat of the story -- the Earthquake that destroyed San Francisco.

We see a wide and fertile plain and we drive across it, as fast as its flatness allows, rarely pondering what might have brought it into being. We come across a valley, and, though we might take pleasure in it appearance, we give it all too little thought What forces first made them?

It was quite unlike New York or Chicago or Boston. Those places were gray, massive, battelship-like cities, cities that were indelibly written into, and indestructibly welded onto, their landscapes But not, it seemed to me, this preternaturally beautiful city of San Francisco How tightly San Francisco appeared to cling on it its hillsides: One could imagine knuckles whitened, sinews straining, teeth gritted.

Jan 02, Curtis Edmonds rated it it was ok. Let us suppose that you are to take a flight from New York to California. Only when you arrive, you find that your flight had been cancelled. The only flight available is out of Newark Airport, and it routes through some airline hub out in the middle of the country — Houston or Dallas or Chicago or Cincinnati, take your pick.

So you get on a shuttle bus and head for Newark, and board your new flight, and sett Let us suppose that you are to take a flight from New York to California. So you get on a shuttle bus and head for Newark, and board your new flight, and settle in for a long siege. And somewhere, over Kansas, you speculate that you are still a long, long way from San Francisco.

Author Simon Winchester is metaphorically speaking headed for San Francisco, but it takes a damnably long time to get there, and there are more detours along that route than even the most unfortunate airline reader will ever encounter, much less countenance.

To give you an idea — just an idea — of where A Crack in the Edge of the World is going, the book starts in Wapakoneta. Ohio, known primarily as the home of Neil Armstrong, who has nothing to do at all with the San Francisco earthquake of that anyone, even the multitalented Winchester, can reveal.

This is in the prologue, which introduces the Gaia Hypothesis and the New Geology and the rest of the science stuff. These are the short chapters. The long chapters are long indeed. Highlights of this include a trip to Iceland where the North American Plate begins , New Madrid, Missouri where a devastating earthquake took place in , and the Wichita Mountains of Oklahoma where another fault is to be found.

None of this, except by comparison, has anything to do with San Francisco, or , or anything much of anything else. The scientific disquisition of the geology that underlines San Francisco is explained with a degree of depth that is only surpassed by its complete lack of clarity.

Winchester covers ophiolites, and strike-slip faulting, and epicenters, all before telling us anything in-depth about San Francisco and and the human scope of the disaster. Eventually, Winchester does get his reader to San Francisco. Winchester introduces us to the famous figures in San Francisco — Enrico Caruso, and Jack London, and the young Ansel Adams — and the ordinary people displaced by the tragedy. A Crack in the Edge of the World is a perfectly reasonable choice for any seasoned airline traveler to bring along — not least because the reader has the power to skip over the more impenetrable sections.

This book is a bit slow and meandering, with more geological factoids than I needed to know, but still I enjoyed it. I lived in sparkling San Francisco for a summer, on beautiful Beach Street, which took a hit during the Loma Prieta quake of But that recent quake was nothing compared to the disaster Winchester portrays here.

He bases his account on first-hand journal entries, letters, diaries, newspaper articles by James Hopper, and the bleak photographs that made Genthe famous. Winche This book is a bit slow and meandering, with more geological factoids than I needed to know, but still I enjoyed it.

Winchester portrays the quake from a worldwide Pangea perspective, comparing fault lines and famous quakes, including Yellowstone National Park. He also portrays the after effects, including 26 aftershocks, water pipes bursting, cattle stampeding, and fire swallowing city blocks whole, while the mayor scrambled for water in a city surrounded by sea. We see him as an avaricious, corrupt politician — and a fool who refused to allocate resources to prevent fire, ignoring his fire chief's warnings, despite the fact that the city had burned six times since the Gold Rush.

Smith condemns the mayor for handing the city over to martial law, allowing soldiers to execute about citizens, including some who were innocent of wrongdoing. Others saw Schmitz as a strong leader taking drastic measures when needed.

Jul 01, J. Simon Winchester can be a bit too much sometimes. This was my second attempt to read this book, the first one bogging down in so much detail and personal travelogue and not really reaching the actual earthquake until pages in aside from a teaser at the beginning, of course. Nevertheless, this time I persevered and am glad that I did. The San Francisco earthquake was devastating to the city. Not only did the shaking 7. But this is much more than just the event here.

Winchester loves geology and dives in deep here, starting with a tour of the entire North American tectonic plate - which of course actually starts in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. So we get a tour of Iceland, and some history on large earthquakes that have occurred in the Eastern US. The San Andreas Fault gets a lot of attention as well as how we measure quakes. And of course there's abundant history on San Francisco.

And if you don't mind a somewhat meandering and wide-ranging history full of science and travel, it's actually a rather entertaining book.

Feb 01, Chana rated it it was amazing Shelves: environmental , american , travel-diaries , political , history , recommended , immigration , non-fiction , science , california. Great book! I bought it for my 9th grader to read as part of her homeschooling program, but I read it before her. At first I thought I would never get through it.

His writing is stilted and boring at the beginning, even as he describes the miracles of our astounding planet. And because I am not a student of geology, I was falling asleep over the technical talk. Soon he picks up speed and his language starts to flow, I start using my dictionary to gain an understanding of his geology terms, and we Great book! Soon he picks up speed and his language starts to flow, I start using my dictionary to gain an understanding of his geology terms, and we reach a meeting of the minds.

I understand what he is saying and he is enjoying what he is teaching. I grew up in Southern California and went through the San Fernando earthquake in , and the Northridge earthquake in Now I live in Seattle and was here for the Nisqually earthquake in She was born later in than the Nisqually earthquake.

I keep thinking we must be in for another pretty soon. That is a little frightening! So I make it through tectonic plate history, placement and movement of; and the early history of quakes along the San Andreas and related faults in Northern California. Good, good. Now onto the history of San Francisco, which I found fascinating, and then the quake itself and the aftermath. I loved this section, it was so very, very interesting.

After this, he brings us into the present with a road trip that even includes a trip to Alaska to see the trans-Alaska oil pipeline which crosses the Denali Fault!! The pipeline is very cleverly constructed with expansion curves and sliders and has so far survived an earth movement of eighteen feet to the right without a drop of oil spilled.

Well hey for human ingenuity in this case. Recommended read! Dec 04, Kevin rated it liked it Shelves: history , non-fiction. Wow, Mr. Winchester had a lot of time on his hands. I was expecting a different book, more concise regarding the earthquake in San Fran in the early 20th century.

I wasn't expecting to learn about the Louisana purchase, and the myriad other little details that he discusses. It seemed as if in every CD the author goes off on a tangent. My wife listened in on a couple of CD's and without me prompting her, made the comment "this guy is all over the place. Otherwise, very informative. Plan to be bored several times.

View 1 comment. May 23, Ray Clendenen rated it it was amazing Shelves: survival , history , travel-nature. This is a wonderful book. It's the third book of his I've read, and I thoroughly enjoyed each one. Winchester is an Oxford-trained geologist, so I learned a ton about plate tectonics and earthquakes as well as California and San Francisco history.

My only issue with the book is that Winchester's vocabulary is bigger than mine, so I had to look up quite a few words, such as "gallimaufry," as well as several French phrases that he assumes his reader will know. But it was good for me. I'm looking f This is a wonderful book. I'm looking for a place to use that word. It means "hodgepodge. Mar 07, Nancy Loe rated it it was ok Shelves: calamities.

The dustjacket is the best part. Wondered about the focus on the moon landing at the beginning about the SF earthquake, but it did all tie together.

Jan 08, Margaret rated it really liked it Shelves: usa-nonfiction. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Very interesting and fun read. Actually, the bits about were the least interesting for me. Though this book wasn't quite what I thought it would be, it was an excellent entree into the writing of Simon Winchester. I expected a social history of the events in San Francisco, instead this is a geological history of plate tectonics and earthquakes and its effects, specifically on April 18, I enjoyed the travelogue experience of accompanying him on his journey around the world and the U.

Selected for my October book discussion group, I Though this book wasn't quite what I thought it would be, it was an excellent entree into the writing of Simon Winchester. Selected for my October book discussion group, I expect lively discourse. Jan 31, Tara rated it did not like it. Read the blurb for this book and tell me--what do you think this book is about? The earthquake maybe? Well, we'll see.

Let's check out the first sentence: Some while ago, when I was half-idly browsing my way around the Internet, I stumbled across the home page of an obscure small town in western Ohio with the arresting name of Wapakoneta. He goes on to paint the town as a quaint, worried old man or woman taking pride in their mechanical work and sucking their teeth with worry over "such Okay.

He goes on to paint the town as a quaint, worried old man or woman taking pride in their mechanical work and sucking their teeth with worry over "such newfangled developments as" outsourcing to Mexico and Asia. The town is just an old fuddy-duddy though.

It has a cool side too. Once upon a time, Neil Armstrong lived there. Cue: Oooh, Aaah. Do you see any hint of an earthquake yet? Or even of just San Francisco or ? Now, to be fair, this is only the prologue.

The actual book must be more focused and better-written, yes? Chapter one after 22 full pages of prologue does indeed begin well. It starts off with a little known fact as icebreaker " You know the sort-- the paper that begins talking about the importance of Shakespeare's works, rather than simply getting down to business and writing the requested analysis of the word "fear" as used in Midsummer's Night Dream? In this case, Winchester talks about earthquakes in in general.

Now, this is interesting information. It is a fine way to start the book. The chapter goes from page 23 to page Five whole pages. Here is the beginning of chapter two: "I first saw San Francisco in the early seventies, at the end of a long westward drive that had taken me clear across the North American continent. Then we get the history of the mountain he camped upon when he saw SF. This is followed by a brief introduction to plate tectonics again and then the narrative returns to him.

What I remember most about the city, which was spread out beyond the low hills and clustered like a jewel box of gleaming spires and glittering windows on its tiny thumbnail peninsula, was just how astonishingly delicate it all looked. My feeling was that this was a confection of untoward and only half-urban-looking delicacy was confirmed by the magnifying lenses.

How tightly San Francisco appeared to cling on to its hillsides: One could imagine knuckles whitened, sinews straining, teeth gritted. He then walks us back to his campsite, down to his car, and lets us know that San Francisco is one of the most temporary cities ever built. We are now 48 pages in and still no sign of the earthquake. Well, that is a lie, there were a couple pages in the prologue concerning the timing of the quake. The next chapter is relevant again.

Context history. Like the last relevant chapter, however, it is very short. Chapter four starts our plate tectonics lesson. This doesn't bother me. The fact that several pages of that chapter are spent on the author recounting the ever thrilling tale of his youth when he once stood on two plates at the same time does. Back in ; I am no longer reading this book I am currently mid-chapter four and am trying to decide whether or not I honestly want to finish this book.

The author's writing style and tone are driving me mad. He does little things, like anthropomorphize the Earth or attempt to create false anxiety with 'cliffhangers' Oh no! He has a word stuck in his head that alters his perception of SF forever! Whatever could it be and why won't he tell us? Also, this book is reading more like what I'd imagine Gilderoy Lockheart would create on the subject, than what I'd hoped for: an interesting account of the earthquake.

I am learning about Winchester's youth and the tangents he finds interesting, but not so much about subject in the title and mentioned on the back cover. Every time I start to get interested in what is happening, he ruins it all by pulling the camera focus back to him.

I don't mind the tangents and such so much. I like context information. I just don't care about Mr. Not even a little bit and the more he tells me about himself, the less interested I am. I honestly cannot remember if I ever bothered to finish the book. Jun 30, Maryanne rated it really liked it. This book is about more than the San Francisco Earthquake. It is about 15 hours of a History of Geological theory, including the introduction of tectonic plate theory b History of tectonic plate movements from the beginning of earth's formation c History of the North American Plate, including the ongoing origin story out of Iceland and recent historical intraplate activities esp those in the New Madrid seismic zone d Geological cluster events, including volcanic eruptions e History of CA from ea This book is about more than the San Francisco Earthquake.

It is about 15 hours of a History of Geological theory, including the introduction of tectonic plate theory b History of tectonic plate movements from the beginning of earth's formation c History of the North American Plate, including the ongoing origin story out of Iceland and recent historical intraplate activities esp those in the New Madrid seismic zone d Geological cluster events, including volcanic eruptions e History of CA from early settlers, and specifics of the founding of San Francisco from its days as Yerba Beuna and why it was called Yerba Buena!

But Winchesters is a great teacher as well as story-teller. He repeats words, like 'right lateral strike slip fault' so that I can grasp it, even though I'm listening to the audio book. I would seek out more of Winchester's works. Just don't expect a quick discussion. Mar 27, Emorgan05 rated it did not like it. Calling it quits. As an audio book, this was too rambling and wandering to keep track of. Winchester flits from topic to topic and most of it is not about the earthquake. Oct 31, Colleen rated it did not like it Shelves: history.

This book made me unexpectedly angry. For starters, the cover is a fucking lie--as is the flyleaf--all 6 paragraphs about the SF Earthquake with but one clue I see now for what was in store for me: "But Winchester's achievement is even greater: he positions the quake's significance along the earth's geological timeline and shows the effect it had on the rest of twentieth-century California and American history.

For starters this book is NOT about This book made me unexpectedly angry. For starters this book is NOT about the SF Earthquake, and if you pick it up thinking you are going to read a history delving into that day and the repercussions etc. If you wanted to read the pretentious musings of a self-indulgent Brit as he compulsively visits everything remotely connected to earthquakes in the Western hemisphere starting back to when the earth was just a little baby ball of molten lava, then you are in for a treat.

You know, I've read a lot of non-fiction history books where the author plays a main role--everything by Sarah Vowell, and Betty Furness's Mabel is one of my all-time favorite books--and perhaps those two ladies had better editors or friends to tell them "NO! I wanted the author to fall into some crevice a pages in. He never even gets to the topic of SF earthquake until like pages in a page book. I don't feel like I left this book knowing anything more really than when I started--other than the exact second it occurred, because there are multiple chapters about that, and just a few paragraphs it seems spared for the death count, which just seems to be "dunno, no way to tell, - 3, I say research because it seems like it's mostly snotty observations on the towns he visits in the US--Americans are generally fat, slothish, freedom fry eating head-in-sand morons.

Pithy passages like: "There is worse, however: Someone suggested taking the road farther north still to Dawson City and being initiated into a drinking club that has its signature libation a whiskey in which is marinated some unfortunate frostbitten toe. It seemed almost a repellant an attraction as Wal-Mart. Tennessee described as "tedious" and "too wide"? And I didn't bother to go through and mark previous passages to compare, but it seems like his descriptions of SF varied widely.

Is it a beautiful city after all, unlike any other, or sorta ruined with meh houses with no plan and is only beautiful because a luck of nature? It seems he espouses to both views. I do take it back, I did like finding out that the namesake of the Douglas fir, David Douglas, tripped and fell into a hole that had an angry bull who had also previously fallen in hole at the bottom, who gored him to death, but it wasn't worth reading all those pages to learn that fun fact.

Apr 17, M rated it it was ok Shelves: nonfiction-various-topics. I have to first start out by saying I'm not a science-y person by any means, so a lot of his book went over my head, even though it's written for a layman.

On the positive side, it is chock full of information about earthquakes: what causes them, why and when they happen, what each of the waves feels like, and some of the worst historical earthquakes and the damage they wreaked on human beings, structures and geography. It's also full of very interesting details about the San Francisco earthquak I have to first start out by saying I'm not a science-y person by any means, so a lot of his book went over my head, even though it's written for a layman.

It's also full of very interesting details about the San Francisco earthquake of and the aftermath. In short, this book has A LOT of information! Winchester certainly knows what he's talking about. He makes a very interesting, and I'm sure entirely correct, assertion that the Earth is a finely balanced living organism, and a disturbance on one side of the world can cause a disturbance on the other side.

Just 12 days before the great quake in San Francisco, Vesuvius erupted in Italy. I had two difficulties with this book which prevents me from giving a higher rating- first of all, much of it is very dry and dare I say, boring- granted, I'm no science aficiando so a lot of it is due to being new information for me.

But it was also distracting that almost every page had a little footnote, which may or may not pertain much to the paragraph it's annotating. I found them to be very distracting, and I started to get the sense that the author simply knows too much, but doesn't know how to cut it down to a manageable level.

Sometimes I found the footnotes to be interesting and other times they were simply confusing why they were included in the first place.

I think this is more a criticism of the editing than the writing. My other reason for the lower star is I didn't realize how scared I would feel after reading this book! Living in the Bay area is certainly one reason why, and the more I see the modern world exploiting the natural resources and further unbalancing the delicate ecosystem of Planet Earth, the more seismic misadventures we are going to experience. Feb 05, Beth Cato rated it liked it Shelves: history , science , research , central-california , I read this book for research purposes.

While I did fill it with sticky notes and found the read overall quite rewarding, I was also left with a strong sense that it could have been a much better book. Winchester is a very knowledgeable fellow. The book is framed around his own travels to places like Iceland and then across North America, from Charleston, to New Madrid, and on westward to San Francisco. His goal is to explore tectonic theory and how the San Andreas Fault fits into the larger sche I read this book for research purposes.

His goal is to explore tectonic theory and how the San Andreas Fault fits into the larger scheme of the living world. The data is quite interesting, but at the same time he rambles. It's like he came across too much good information and tried to squeeze it into one book. This creates a problem when a book about the earthquake doesn't get to the actual earthquake until page This also creates the odd dilemma in that it felt like little of the book was on the actual quake.

Information on the aftermath is interesting, such as the struggle to get insurance companies to pay up especially German-based ones , and the plight of the Chinese and the ensuing wave of "Paper People" who tried to take advantage of or were genuinely lost because of the loss of immigration paperwork. He then, however, devotes too much space to how the "wrath of God" aspect of the earthquake inspired the Pentecostal church movement. Even his trip to Alaska to discuss the fascinating matter of how the pipeline has been created to withstand earthquakes is colored by derogatory comments on towns along the way, including a slam against Wal-mart that felt out of place in its arrogance.

In all, its an interesting book that's diluted by too many tangents. Still worth reading, though, even if it caused me to roll my eyes or skim at times. Aug 08, Dan rated it liked it. Winchester's exhaustive look at the geology behind the San Francisco earthquake was quite edifying, but it was a bit short on the drama of the event itself and the aftermath. I've been looking for a good book on the disaster for a little while now, and when I came across A Crack in the Edge of the World I was thrilled.

I'd read Winchester's Atlantic a couple of years ago and enjoyed it. However, the jacket copy is a bit misleading here. True, the book is about the earthquake, but I was Winchester's exhaustive look at the geology behind the San Francisco earthquake was quite edifying, but it was a bit short on the drama of the event itself and the aftermath. True, the book is about the earthquake, but I was expecting a good three hundred pages on the event and the aftermath, peopled with unforgettable characters.

I was expecting something akin to Devil in the White City ; instead, Winchester spent about pages setting up the geology of the event. Yes, it was very informative, and I did enjoy it, but I would've enjoyed it had I been expecting it. The event itself takes up about pages, most at the end, but with a teaser at the beginning as well. I learned some fun facts, and in the end I now feel like I have a good foundation on what happened on that fateful April day just over a century ago.

I could've done with less geology and less of Winchester's overwrought prose. Better World Books. Uploaded by Tracey Gutierres on October 5, Internet Archive's 25th Anniversary Logo.

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