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Simon Winchester, New York Times bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman, examines the legendary annihilation in 1883 of the volcano-... read full description
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Jun 16, 2011
Helvry
rated it: 
Apakah suatu kebanggaan bila sebuah bencana pernah menjadi buah bibir internasional. Belum hilang di benak kita bencana tsunami di Banda Aceh dan sekitarnya yang menelan korban jiwa lebih dari 100.000 jiwa. Oktober 2010 lalu, erupsi Merapi turut menambah catatan bencana terbesar bagi negeri kita ini. Letusan Gunung vulkanik telah lama menjadi langganan bagi wilayah negeri kita. Rekor yang tidak terkalahkan adalah letusan Gunung Toba yang membentuk caldera Danau Toba, serta letusan Gunung Tambora
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Sep 07, 2008
Trevor
rated it:
Another masterful book by Simon Winchester. I really enjoyed this one – so much so that I’ve bought a copy for my father for Father’s Day.
When I was in Primary School one of my teachers once spoke about Krakatoa. Most of what he said wasn’t true, for instance, he said that the tidal wave went around the world twice. Naturally, the 8 year old me had visions of a huge wall of water drowning the world. Krakatoa was bad, but not quite Biblical.
Winchester is a pure del More...
When I was in Primary School one of my teachers once spoke about Krakatoa. Most of what he said wasn’t true, for instance, he said that the tidal wave went around the world twice. Naturally, the 8 year old me had visions of a huge wall of water drowning the world. Krakatoa was bad, but not quite Biblical.
Winchester is a pure del More...
Apr 01, 2011
Amang
rated it:
Krakatau -- sebuah nama yang selama ratusan tahun telah tertanam di kesadaran kolektif seluruh dunia, bagian dari leksikon dunia. Akrab tetapi sekaligus samar-samar. Itu yang menjadikannya eksotik. Bagi kita yang hidup di abad ke-21 ini, Krakatau bagai sebuah artefak. Sama halnya seperti Tambora. Kita hanya mengenalinya dari daftar 10 Letusan Gunung Terdahsyat di Dunia (daftarnya ada di taut berikut: http://eka.web.id/10-letusan-gunung-terd... ) Sebelumnya tidak ada sebuah kekhususan untuk menge
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12 comments
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(3 people liked it)
Jun 30, 2011
miaaa
rated it: 
What I think about this book?
It was so amazing that I mostly dumbfounded throughout the reading progress. Lots of details -the likes of the history of Batavia, early colonialism, etc- that I think interesting despite my genuine expectation regarding the book was merely about the eruption.
Yet somehow I like the, as a friend said in her review, the OOT parts of this book, for me, quite entertaining. But to be honest not all of them, just a bit.
If somehow Mr. Wincheste More...
It was so amazing that I mostly dumbfounded throughout the reading progress. Lots of details -the likes of the history of Batavia, early colonialism, etc- that I think interesting despite my genuine expectation regarding the book was merely about the eruption.
Yet somehow I like the, as a friend said in her review, the OOT parts of this book, for me, quite entertaining. But to be honest not all of them, just a bit.
If somehow Mr. Wincheste More...
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Nov 12, 2011
Mark
rated it:
I always attracted to history, especially if it has connection with (natural) disasters.
That's why when a book like Krakatoa: The Day The World Exploded got published, I always have an urge to read it (and whenever possible, to buy and add it into my personal library).
I mean, a book such as Krakatoa is like a perfect combo: a history book that tries to fully describe a big disaster, a catastrophe, which is widely believed has major impact and affected history of human kind, More...
That's why when a book like Krakatoa: The Day The World Exploded got published, I always have an urge to read it (and whenever possible, to buy and add it into my personal library).
I mean, a book such as Krakatoa is like a perfect combo: a history book that tries to fully describe a big disaster, a catastrophe, which is widely believed has major impact and affected history of human kind, More...
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Jul 20, 2007
Julie
rated it:
This book was a lot like Guns, Germs and Steel in the sense that it connected history, technology, and anthropology together to explain how the explosion of Krakatao affected the entire planet. The book also detailed how this is one event in somewhat recent history that actually affected the ENTIRE world, through weather patterns, dust issues, tsunamis, etc. The explosion itself also brought together different scientists and really increased the understanding of tectonic plates, geophysics, etc.
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Jul 23, 2011
Bill
rated it:
I quite enjoyed this novel. I've read other Simon Winchester books before; the making of the Oxford English Dictionary, the Map of the UK (geological) and have found his interests quite varied. I was somewhat worried at the beginning that this story might be too scientific as he tried to explain tectonic plates and the makings of the Earth, but my fears were unfounded. The story was varied and interesting and got even more so as it got deeper into it. It covered such areas, as the development of
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Apr 17, 2007
JT
rated it: 
Alright, I know I scored this with 3 stars, but that is because it is just LONG and DULL in places.
This book is about the last great Global event right before the modern era of the industrial revolution. You learn so much and gain such an insight into this event that you can't help but feel smarter. Hell, you feel like you've earned your PhD. in Geology or some anthropological earth science by the time you reach the end of this bad mamma-jamma!
If you have a few weeks of More...
This book is about the last great Global event right before the modern era of the industrial revolution. You learn so much and gain such an insight into this event that you can't help but feel smarter. Hell, you feel like you've earned your PhD. in Geology or some anthropological earth science by the time you reach the end of this bad mamma-jamma!
If you have a few weeks of More...
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Mar 23, 2009
CaterinaAnna
rated it:
Jumped up my reading list at the urging of Netstation, who is seldom wrong in recommending books. One of the early chapters of this, detailing the known history of the island, covers some of the same ground and refers to some of the same people (albeit with different spellings) as Nathaniel's Nutmeg, so it felt like a continuation of that not long ago finished story, or as if I'd read a travel guide before visiting. The title and popular imagination think of Krakatoa as a single catclysmic explo
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Mar 07, 2009
CD
rated it:
Dependable historical story telling can be a dry glass in a desert for many readers. Winchester is a very fine writer, fine to the point of absurdum with descriptions that sometime take him down a path that does not always work on the written page. Having heard him speak and listened to his reading of his works it both pushes my rating of this back to 3 stars and down to 3 stars at the same time.
Nothing is left out it seems from this story, but where detail and richness of informatio More...
Nothing is left out it seems from this story, but where detail and richness of informatio More...
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Nov 22, 2008
Yael
rated it:
On August 27, 1883, an immense volcano on an island in the Sunda Straits of immense archipelago that was the Dutch East Indies (now called Indonesia) annihilated itself in an explosion that changed the world. Thousands of people in the vicinity of the volcano died right there; many more were made homeless and destitute as a result of it. The shock wave from that titanic explosion manifested as atmospheric pressure waves -- sound waves -- heard thousands of miles away, and the disaster was fol
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Nov 22, 2008
David
rated it:
The book does much, much more than consider a single day.
The island of Krakatoa lies between the Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. It is one of the most active volcanic areas of the world, and has erupted repeatedly for much of recorded history. The most cataclysmic of those occurred in 1883, when most of the island (and its 1800 meter peak) disappeared.
The book begins with a somewhat drawn-out historic review of the area and a layman-friendly look at the evolution of theories o More...
The island of Krakatoa lies between the Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. It is one of the most active volcanic areas of the world, and has erupted repeatedly for much of recorded history. The most cataclysmic of those occurred in 1883, when most of the island (and its 1800 meter peak) disappeared.
The book begins with a somewhat drawn-out historic review of the area and a layman-friendly look at the evolution of theories o More...
Feb 02, 2012
Judy
rated it:
On August 27, 1883, the volcanic island of Krakatoa, located in the Sundra Straits in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), exploded. The explosion, devastation, tsunamis, and shock waves killed almost 40,000 people and affected the entire world. Shock waves were detected around the world and high sea waves hit the shores of France and the English Channel. Dust that was hurled miles into the atmosphere from the explosion of the volcano kept full sunlight from reaching the earth, causing glo
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Feb 01, 2012
I listened to this book when it first came out. I used to drive from Pullman WA to Seattle and the Tri-Cities fairly regularly for work, and this book accompanied me on some of those trips. I loved it. It was fascinating for me to learn how seemingly disparate elements are actually closely related. Winchester walks us through how weather patterns were affected for years after the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883, and how emerging technologies allowed us, for the first time, to track those affects. T
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Oct 25, 2011
John
rated it:
Only superlatives can describe the Volcanic Eruption of the island of Krakatoa that took place on August 27, 1883. In the shallow waters of the Sunda Strait lying between Sumatra and Java, Indonesia or as we learned in school The Dutch East Indies, the 6 cubic miles of uninhabited rock were blasted out of existence. Over 36,000 people perished in the tsunami that followed with thousands more being injured. A cloud of gas and pumice was hurled 24 miles into the air with the debris blocking the ra
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Oct 09, 2011
Goldenwattle
rated it:
First let me say that it was the volcano Krakatoa that I wished to read about, and finding lots of background in the first section of the book, I skimmed until page 154 and the start of Krakatoa’s story. So my comments and scoring for this book relate only to pages 154 to 408.
Pages 154 to 408 are page turners, Krakatoa’s story was riveting. It told of the months leading up to the big explosion and often gave the story in the actual words of people who were there and survived. My criticism More...
Pages 154 to 408 are page turners, Krakatoa’s story was riveting. It told of the months leading up to the big explosion and often gave the story in the actual words of people who were there and survived. My criticism More...
May 15, 2011
Andrew
rated it:
Prolific American writer Will Durant once said, “Civilization exists by geologic consent, subject to change without notice” (Winchester 299). These words epitomize Krakatoa, The Day the World Exploded August 27th, 1988. This book was a compelling and intense true story about a volcanic eruption on a tiny island in the Sunda Straight between the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Java. Simon Winchester did a wonderful job of explaining a geographical disaster from the ground up. Initially, Winches
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Jun 13, 2010
Keith
rated it:
I superlative example of a narrative around an event in history, all the things that lead up to it, and how it was perceived later. Reminded me a lot of Jared Diamond. He starts with the earliest records of volcanic studies by Romans; moves onto the spice trade and the reason that the cities nearby were settled by the Dutch, following the Portuguese.
He covers Alfred Russel Wallace who discovered that half the islands there have one distinct set of flora and fauna, while the othe More...
He covers Alfred Russel Wallace who discovered that half the islands there have one distinct set of flora and fauna, while the othe More...
Jan 17, 2010
Nicole
rated it:
I really wanted this book to be better than it was. While it has a lot of factual information about Krakatoa, it tells the tale with a number of sidetracks and blind alleys rather than in a linear fashion. At many points, it's hard to tell whether the author is relating something that happened before, during, or after the explosion.
And, unfortunately, the explosion itself is a very small portion of the book. Winchester dedicates 64 pages to explaining the origins of continental drift More...
And, unfortunately, the explosion itself is a very small portion of the book. Winchester dedicates 64 pages to explaining the origins of continental drift More...
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Dec 09, 2009
Joselito
rated it:
This is not just about that famous volcano, Krakatoa, in Indonesia [near Java and Sumatra:]. The book consumed almost 400 pages because it likewise dealt with topics related to the volcano, and volcanoes in general.
There were chapters about spices and the spice trade. Spices are the in thing at that time, and the area where Krakatoa was was where most of the spices were harvested at that time. Naturally, the Europeans competed with each other in this spice trade and somehow it was th More...
There were chapters about spices and the spice trade. Spices are the in thing at that time, and the area where Krakatoa was was where most of the spices were harvested at that time. Naturally, the Europeans competed with each other in this spice trade and somehow it was th More...
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Nov 10, 2009
Emily
rated it: 
Over the weekend I read Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883, a book in which Simon Winchester has the gall to make fun of a geographically mistitled film called "Krakatoa, East of Java," while himself failing to provide an adequate map of the region. There are historical maps, there are maps of where the sound of the explosion could be heard, there are numerous diagrams of fault-lines and continental and oceanic plates, and there is even a black-and-white reproduction
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Jun 04, 2009
I started reading this and kind of zoned out really fast. This is one of those books -- all too common now -- where the chronicler seems hellbent on going back far into time and detailing various tangentially relevant incident before finally deciding to bring it all home somewhere near the end. I'm sure that descriptions of flora and fauna and the history of trade routes have their place, but not to this extent. Why must every author have to be the "chronicler of record" and weigh thei
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Aug 04, 2011
I would expect a book about a volcano to include plate tectonics and volcanism but this book is so much more - pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, Greenland, European colonialism, the beginnings of militant Islam, the ending of Dutch imperialism, meteorology, the development of radio, Javanese culture, the European legal system, ballooning spiders, the shipping business, barogrophy, and on and on. Who knew? While this book was at times a bit tedious, it was full of information and a very thoro
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Aug 26, 2010
Clif
rated it:
The reader of this book learns about plate tectonics, bio-diversity, the Wallace Line, and history of the Dutch East Indies Company before reaching the big explosion. Then there's the false start, followed later by the big blast, and then all sorts of stories follow. Then there's more science lessons about tsunamis, shock waves, jet stream, and other stuff. The author strings all these topics together into a most fascinating tale.
I thought the author pushed things a bit too far wh More...
I thought the author pushed things a bit too far wh More...
Aug 08, 2011
It would not take a lot of pages to get into the catastrophic effects of the Krakatoa eruption: massive tsunamis, a sound that might never be heard again, the effects of the dust and pumice expelled. What Winchester does to justify the 350 pages of text (and ample illustrations) is give us a history and geology lesson. He explains the tectonic plates and their effects on the world's volcanoes, gives us an historical account of Dutch shipping and colonization, and examines the side effects the er
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Jun 14, 2011
John
rated it:
I thoroughly enjoyed this one, a pop history a little more up my alley than 'Cod' turned out to be. Because seriously, which is more exciting, the most awesome and destructive volcanic eruption mankind has ever witnessed, or a fish?
This is really a much broader work of science history than it would appear at first glance; it isn't just about the events of Aug. 27th, 1883. Winchester spends a lot of time working his way up to the eruption, writing of the history of Indonesia and Dutch Colon More...
This is really a much broader work of science history than it would appear at first glance; it isn't just about the events of Aug. 27th, 1883. Winchester spends a lot of time working his way up to the eruption, writing of the history of Indonesia and Dutch Colon More...
Jun 03, 2010
kingshearte
rated it:
When I decided to re-read The Twenty-One Balloons, I thought it might be interesting to read a factual account of the volcano as a companion book, so I picked out this one. It was a very interesting read, with a somewhat broader scope than I'd anticipated.
The first part dragged slightly, with details about both the history of Dutch colonialism in the East Indies and the area's geology. Aspects of the history were interesting, but not really what I came to this book for, and as for th More...
The first part dragged slightly, with details about both the history of Dutch colonialism in the East Indies and the area's geology. Aspects of the history were interesting, but not really what I came to this book for, and as for th More...
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Jan 13, 2010
Steven
rated it:
Simon Winchester's "Krakatoa" is a crackerjack history of a major natural disaster--the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883. This event precipitated a major tsunami that killed nearly 40,000 people.
The book takes a look at the microlevel events--what transpired in villages as the tsunami hit. The details of the book provide a gripping tale of a first class natural disaster.
Winchester provides information on some of the major actors in this event; he describes in minu More...
The book takes a look at the microlevel events--what transpired in villages as the tsunami hit. The details of the book provide a gripping tale of a first class natural disaster.
Winchester provides information on some of the major actors in this event; he describes in minu More...
Jun 06, 2009
Sandybanks
rated it:
The most interesting thing that I learn from this book is about how recent the science of plate tectonics is. Most of the major theories relating to it were only established in the 1960's. There is an astounding 100-year gap between it and the much more controversial theory of evolution. The history of the development of the theory of plate tectonics is fascinating, although some of the scientific/ technical details could be rather tedious to read for someone who is not of a scientific bent like
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Apr 03, 2009
Mike
rated it:
A detailed study of one of the greatest volcanic eruptions in modern times. From my perspective, "detail" is not completely a good thing in this case. I appreciate Winchester's research, as well as his making an effort to describe the burgeoning sea trade and culture of the region in the 1880's, but I think he goes a little long. Its nearly disappointing how relatively little pulp is given to the earth-shaking explosions and aftermath, especially when you consider the title! Having
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