The Little Book of Time by Klaus Mainzerr

I was induced to this book by the halo that hovers for me onto Mainzer after having read an earlier version of his pondering and deep “Thinking in complexity”. I have to say I was misdirected by such bias, and it is puzzling to conceive that the same mind released that thoughtful reflection on complex systems and, earlier, this list of statements with barely any underlying unity other than the subject matter per se and no original material proposed by the author. While reading it till the end, mostly for sense of duty and stubbornness even after realizing its shallowness, I felt annoyed and irritated like it rarely happened to me during a reading. Disappointment arise from the book being essentially a compilation of statements about the appearance, role and conceptions of time across sciences, philosophy, economy and society. This is no small task, and the scope addressed is, truth said, intellectually remarkable. Yet the book does not elicit any passion, curiosity or engagement from the reader, as it amounts to no more than a search done by a high school student in his last year. The author does not go further than the statement of ideas in all cases, changes focus from paragraph to paragraph following links, reminders and connections between ideas, but this turns out to be a boring exercise in cold erudition instead of a rollercoster of speculations and insights. All material is available elsewhere in better shape and form, and the references are very few compared to the broadness of topics boarded. In the best case this book could have been written by the author for the author himself — it looks like that sort of short summaries one writes to synthesize prior study, and that is intelligible and interactive only for the author in its full details. The reader not familiar with the topics will not learn much from the book, and may just get off by being pushed too fast and without dedication from reference to reference. Mainzer does not hide is predilection/bias for complex dynamical systems, but the discussion on them mainly full of mouth-filling jargon more than appreciation and explanation for end users. Besides, the text is repleted with analogies drawn among disciplines with deliberate and suspicious ease and freedom. The writing style is aseptic and rigid, giving the impression that the author is enunciating truths carved in stone rather than temporary theories and historical attempts at reaching better ones. And the author is merely a compiler and collector, which makes the book lacking innovation and intrigue.
Largely skippable for those seeking intellectual epics.