by Hubert Mania (ed.), Rowohlt Verlag. Hardback ISBN 3498044885, €17.90.
The Big Stephen Hawking Reader includes excerpts from books written by Hawking, as well as information about his life and work. This naturally divides the book into two parts: the first half is a short biography of Hawking interspersed with sections explaining the basic physics of his work. In this way it not only introduces Hawking himself, but also his thoughts and ideas.
Mania admits in the prologue that he wrote the biography from a “respectful distance”, honouring Hawking’s wish to be remembered for his work and not his “involuntary presence in the gossip columns”. Because of this, Mania sometimes leaves out things that could shed a less favourable light on Hawking. For example, Hawking’s treatment of his first wife is only mentioned very briefly. Nevertheless there are some nice anecdotes about Hawking, such as when he was thinking about A Brief History of Time. “If he was going to neglect his research to write a popular book, then it should be profitable for him.”
The second half of the book is made up of excerpts from A Short History of Time, The Illustrated Short History of Time and Einstein’s Dream. The chapters are well chosen and understandable with the help of Mania’s comments.
Even if Mania’s book is sometimes a little sketchy, I enjoyed reading it and would recommend it to anyone who wants a short introduction to Stephen Hawking’s life and work – and it whets the appetite for more books about and by this well known scientist.
