Why read The World in a Grain?

Book cover of The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization

Book description

A finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award

The gripping story of the most important overlooked commodity in the world--sand--and the crucial role it plays in our lives.

After water and air, sand is the natural resource that we consume more than any other--even more than oil.…

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Topics

China
India

Genres

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Why read it?

1 author picked The World in a Grain as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Susan Freinkel

Author

This book is filled with surprises, starting with the foundational fact that sand is the most consumed natural resource, after air and water. It’s an essential ingredient of the modern world used for roads, to make buildings, to make glass, silicon chips, elastic, and much more. Surprise number two: we’re running out of this seemingly infinite stuff. China alone, I learned, used more cement in 2011-13 than the US did in the entire twentieth century. Today, he writes, “river beds and beaches around the world are being stripped bare of their precious grains. Forests and farms are being torn up.…

From Susan's list on important things hiding in plain sight.