The Path

A One-Mile Walk Through the Universe

By: Chet Raymo

Narrated by: Jay Snyder

For almost 40 years, Chet Raymo walked a one-mile path from his house to the college where he taught physics, chronicling the universe by observing every detail of his route with a scientist's curiosity, a historian's respect for the past, and a child's capacity for wonder.

With each step, the landscape he traversed became richer, suggesting ever deeper aspects of astronomy, history, biology, and literature, and making the path universal in scope. His insights inspire us to turn our local paths into portals to greater understanding of our interconnectedness with nature and history.

©2009 Chet Raymo (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"[P]rompted by what he sees, Raymo discusses engagingly such topics as [physics], photosynthesis, geology and evolution. The path so intimately familiar to him runs for barely more than a mile, 'but the territory it traverses is as big as the universe.'" (Scientific American)

A wondrous and beautiful experience

Any additional comments?

I found this audiobook spellbinding and mesmerising. Its simple message is that the sheer wonder and joy of the natural and scientific world is right under our noses, and we need, in most cases, look nowhere else to feed our need for awe and amazement. A tiny bit too much of local history for my taste, but that in no way degrades the overall effect. Wonderful and beautiful and I look forwad to a sequel!

Don’t bother

I really wanted to like this book. But it is really boring, superficial, tedious and somewhat dated