J Ellard Gore

I love this sort of book. It's an old (ca. 1909) list of both facts and curiosa in the realm of astronomy. Much of the science is, of course, woefully out of date -- but it is fascinating to read what the then-current theories were. Gore has a lively style and an ear for the memorable quote.

The book has hardly any structure, although it is organized into chapters. It's essentially a list of stuff ... but what wonderful stuff! It loses steam only once, I think, in its list of constellations -- this goes on at somewhat wearisome length. But the rest is grand.

Here is the Project Gutenberg link, for anyone interested:

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39263

Thank you again, Project Gutenberg, for making this kind of thing available to all for free!… (altro)