Turing's Cathedral: The Origins Of The Digital Universe (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
I have mixed feelings about the book. When the author writes about the individuals involved in the creation of the first computers, their personalities, their eccentricities, the petty struggles among academic departments (ex. the episode of whole stole the sugar for the tea) the book is very enjoyable. However, when he sets out to explain the mathematics behind it all, he loses me completely. I might as well be reading a foreign language. I have neither the background nor the intelligence to understand it. I really expected to enjoy this more than I did, and more than some other reviewers here seemed to...but now I understand what people were saying. I knew this was not a biography of Turing, as some seemed to think, but even so it was just...not that good. It was disjointed, for one thing - it felt more like a collection of articles that were loosely connected enough to maybe be published in the same journal. There were tangents that were quite unnecessary and way too long. And even when the author was talking about what I wanted to read the book for, it was so dry and boring. And I read a lot of non-fiction on dense and difficult topics, so it's not the genre I have an issue with - it's the execution here. Way too much tiny detail for pages and pages, with no real hook to draw you in. I always feel weird giving a low rating to a book that got such praise from professional critics and reviewers, but...to each their own, I guess.
What do You think about Turing's Cathedral: The Origins Of The Digital Universe (2012)?
A good book for the questions it answers, but a great book for the questions it poses.
—britteg
Because I'm addicted to all things Turing - related.
—myfreddies
