Reading progress update: I've read 188 out of 473 pages.

5:32 pm 15 July 2017

The Invention of Nature: The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt, the Lost Hero of Science - Andrea Wulf

Part III is behind me, and I feel bad for Humboldt: he's back in Europe and all he wants to do is leave again and nobody will let him. Not only that, but circumstances and finances demand he return to Berlin, the last place he ever wanted to go back to.

I'm really enjoying the writing; as BrokenTune pointed out in our book club discussion, Wulf doesn't speculate or theorise about Humboldt's motivations, emotions, or anything else; she just represents the facts in a very human way. I could have done without the whole Simon Bolivar chapter though; I understand that it fit in context with the huge influence Humboldt had on Bolivar, but I didn't need to play by play of the South American revolution to appreciate that influence.

I still think Humboldt was secretly a hamster on meth though; I just can't wrap my mind around that much energy in one man.

And Wulf better tell us what ultimately happened to Bonpland.