As previously noted, the UK edition of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog is selling very well via the Guardian‘s online bookshop, among other UK venues. It’s doing well enough that I might need to start referring to the original text as the American edition of How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog…
There’s a nice ironic twist to the Guardian aspect of it, though, in the form of a review by that paper that I hadn’t previously noticed until this book business summary brought it to my attention. It’s a blisteringly bad review, basically dumping hate all over the talking-dog conceit. Which, you know, is an obvious failure mode for the book, so I’m not surprised that somebody had that reaction.
It is kind of amusing, though, that the bad review doesn’t seem to have adversely affected the sales, even via the very paper in which the review was printed. Maybe it is true what they say about there being no such thing as bad publicity…
And while I’m doing a book-promotion post, I might as well note that it is readily available via amazon.co.uk, and that you can get the American edition in both hardcover and paperback, as well as in Kindle format. There’s still time to order many copies and get them in time for Christmas. (If you would like a signed copy, the turnaround is a little tighter, but send me an email at the address in the Contact tab above, and I’ll see what I can do.)
Oh, it’s not _blisteringly_ bad. This bit is downright positive except for the first five words:
“In between these horrendous passages are many elegantly approachable descriptions, in a normal tone of voice, of “the deep and bizarre quantum nature of the universe”, with a refreshing emphasis on recent research; the climactic chapter on hawkers of “quantum” garbage (“healers” and the like) is highly satisfying.”
Eh, what can you do? Some see a talking dog, and their first thought is to complain that it’s not on a leash. No appreciation for wonder, some people.
Why haven’t you been on the Grauniad’s Science Weekly Podcast yet? I’m sure they’d love to hear you say nasty things about their reviewer. (Honest!)
I read the review, it’s not really bad, just really snooty. Apparently some people, such as serious stiff-lipped literary critics, have zero tolerance for cutesy. Oh well, to each his own I suppose.
However, when he says “Emmy rears her stupid head every few pages” — what kind of person feels the need to insult a dog?
Galilei, Galileo. Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo, 1632.
Don’t allow Simplicius of Cilicia, Ludovico delle Colombe, and Cesare Cremonini to give you a wedgie. To criticize is to volunteer.