Acquainted With The Night: Excursions Through the World After Dark
3.5/5
()
Unavailable in your country
Unavailable in your country
About this ebook
Only Christopher Dewdney could mine the darkest pools of lore, legend, natural history, science, cultural history and the arts to recast the seemingly commonplace aspects of an ordinary night into a magical and exhilarating nocturnal tour. Using an original hour-by-hour structure that follows night’s progression from 6:00 pm to 6:00 am, Dewdney explores and celebrates a single representative night at each point on the clock.
- 6:00 pm: The setting sun begins Dewdney’s search to discover the perfect sunset.
- 10:00 pm: The evening rhythms of the city hit their stride, from the cop on the night beat to the backbeat of the clubs.
- Midnight: The hour of romance and magic.
- 3:00 am: Dewdney is wide awake at a sleep clinic.
- 5:00 am: “The desperate hour,” we enter a provocative cultural investigation of the “art of darkness.”
For all those who’ve been wondering what they’ve been missing while they sleep, Acquainted with the Night is an illuminating exploration and a terrific gift book.
Christopher Dewdney
Christopher Dewdney is one of Canada's most articulate and thoughtful cultural commentators. He has published three books of popular non-fiction, including The Immaculate Perception, which was nominated for the Governor General's Award, and Last Flesh. He also penned 11 highly acclaimed books of poetry and won first prize for poetry in the CBC Literary Competition. Fluent in several scientific disciplines, Christopher Dewdney makes his home in Toronto, where he teaches creative writing at York University.
Read more from Christopher Dewdney
Acquainted with the Night: Excursions Through the World After Dark Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/518 Miles: The Epic Drama of Our Atmosphere and Its Weather Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Acquainted With The Night
Related ebooks
The Deep Zoo: Essays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChildren of the Outer Dark: The Poetry of Christopher Dewdney Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Collected Short Fiction of Bruce Jay Friedman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Map of Faring, A Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Planetarium Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Iron Heel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMy Life is like a Fairy Tale Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSarrasine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5White Spines: Confessions of a Book Collector Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Iceland Summer: Travels along the Ring Road Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHosts and Guests: Poems Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Baudelaire the Damned: A Biography Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Female Ruins: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5You have a Lot to Lose: A Memoir, 1956–1986 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Fountains of Neptune Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLoose Cannons: Selected Prose Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Book About Everything: Eighteen Artists, Writers and Thinkers on James Joyce's Ulysses Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCutty, One Rock: Low Characters and Strange Places, Gently Explained Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5At the Sign of the Cat and Racket Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMaestros & Monsters: Days & Nights with Susan Sontag & George Steiner Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSnow Approaching on the Hudson: Poems Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lucian's True History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Fetters of Rhyme: Liberty and Poetic Form in Early Modern England Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Front Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStories to Read by Candlelight Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Shakespeare's Sonnets Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAlways Crashing in the Same Car: A Novel after David Bowie Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings52 Men Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Guermantes Way Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSubduction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Science & Mathematics For You
A Letter to Liberals: Censorship and COVID: An Attack on Science and American Ideals Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning is Hard and How You Can Make It Easy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Cliterate: Why Orgasm Equality Matters--And How to Get It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Big Book of Hacks: 264 Amazing DIY Tech Projects Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lies My Gov't Told Me: And the Better Future Coming Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Invisible Rainbow: A History of Electricity and Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Activate Your Brain: How Understanding Your Brain Can Improve Your Work - and Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Born for Love: Why Empathy Is Essential--and Endangered Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago: The Authorized Abridgement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/518 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Memory Craft: Improve Your Memory with the Most Powerful Methods in History Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Hunt for the Skinwalker: Science Confronts the Unexplained at a Remote Ranch in Utah Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Systems Thinker: Essential Thinking Skills For Solving Problems, Managing Chaos, Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Crack In Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5No Stone Unturned: The True Story of the World's Premier Forensic Investigators Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Suicidal: Why We Kill Ourselves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A History of the American People Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/52084: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Psychology of Totalitarianism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Acquainted With The Night
32 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Acquainted With The Night is an amazing book that chronicles the twelve hours of the night. Seemingly disparate topics such as science, art, history, philosophy, fireworks, astronomy, psychology, bed time stories, nocturnal animals and dreams are woven together to create a fascinating look at a time when most people are asleep. Not just for night owls, Acquainted With The Night is for anyone looking for a book that balances scientific facts with lyrically wrought sentences that allude to Dewdney's background as a poet. Highly recommended!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wonderfully intriguing -- an invitation to take a journey through the 12 hours of darkness, with a trustworthy and wise guide. This book is like a curiosity cabinet -- full of delightful items you've probably never considered before, some of which go bump, and some of which entrance: sleep, murder, dreams, bats, goddesses, astronomy, a wide variety of nocturnal creatures, meditations on philosophy, science and literature -- all explored with a poet's sensibility. Dewdney's interests in things of the night is so far ranging that I suspect not every single thing in the book with interest every single reader, and but where else could you discover that we are most sensitive to dust at 11 p.m. or, discover that the Panzer divisions invading Poland were on methamphetamine, or hear a comet described thusly: "there is something fascinating yet unearthly and menacing about a comet, as if it were a cold, phosphorescent angel of calamity - it hangs in the sky like a beautiful jinx." Lovely. Now, grab your lantern and a pair of stout boots, it's time to a little nocturnal wandering...