The book Death by Black Hole is a welcome addition to an astronomer's library.
Need something to do on cloudy nights? This new book by Neil deGrasse Tyson is a perfect fit. It is a collection of essays by the director of New York City's Hayden Planetarium.
The book is separated into sections with chapters that can easily be read in one sitting. Each chapter explores a new topic relating to astronomy. There are chapters about our solar system, planets found around other stars, the physics of black holes, the division between science and religion, and the flubs made in Hollywood movies about space, to name a few.
Tyson writes in an engaging and often humorous way. He is knowledgeable on the topics but is still humble, making light of his preaching to movie director James Cameron when he pointed out Cameron's flawed sky in the blockbuster Titanic. (Thanks to Tyson, it was fixed for later releases of the DVD.)
The chapter the book is named for describes how unpleasant it would be to slowly be ripped apart by a black hole. Tyson suggests that if the Spanish Inquisition had access to a black hole it would have used that as a torture device rather than the rack.
No matter what your favorite topic in astronomy is, you can find something to inform and entertain you in Death by Black Hole. If you enjoy this book, check out a previous book by the author called Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution.
