The Periodic Table (Penguin Modern Classics)

by Primo Levi | Literature & Fiction | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 0141185147 Global Overview for this book
Registered by bookowl1000 of Wuhan, Hubei China on 9/9/2011
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1 journaler for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by bookowl1000 from Wuhan, Hubei China on Friday, September 9, 2011
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Journal Entry 2 by bookowl1000 at Foshan 佛山, Guangdong China on Friday, September 9, 2011
The Periodic Table (Italian: Il Sistema Periodico) is a collection of short stories by Primo Levi, published in 1975, named after the periodic table in chemistry. In 2006, the Royal Institution of Great Britain named it the best science book ever.

The stories have various themes: the experiences of life in Nazi concentration camps, legacies from the profession of chemistry, tales both true and with his own fantasy, creating a vision of the synthesis of the life of the author seen through the kaleidoscope of chemistry. Every story, 21 in total, has the name of a chemical element and is connected to it in some way.

Journal Entry 3 by bookowl1000 at Foshan 佛山, Guangdong China on Friday, September 9, 2011
This book has been packed in my back and will soon be on its way to Thailand with me for a holiday. Hope I have time to read it.

Journal Entry 4 by bookowl1000 at Foshan 佛山, Guangdong China on Saturday, September 17, 2011
This book was not quite what I was expecting. It seems to be a mix of autobiographical commentary and fiction. I was expecting there to be more focus on the elements, but it was more that provided a theme (sometimes somewhat loose) for a story.

Argon: an unreactive gas that is only mentioned in the first few sentences, then a description on a variety of different characters.

Hydrogen: two teenage boys 'borrow' keys to a chem lab in a shed and have fun experimenting with glassblowing and electrolysis - this is a type of activity that is now lost duw to the health and safety conscious world.

zinc: obtaining samples of zinc sulphate while in the university lab, really about trying the grab the attention of a girl

iron: the fate of Sandro, a loner, who became friends with the author when he too became a loner due to Jewish racial laws being implemented.

potassium: a fire caused by this metal

nickel: being conscripted to find out the percentage composition of Ni in rock

lead: a fantasy story about Rodmund who travels the world in search of lead ores in order to become rich and successful.

phosphorus: a factory where the work is so secret that even the reference books are examined after use to see if anyone has left an indication of what they may have been reading.

gold: partisans, imprisonment and gold in a river.

cerium: a story of survival within a concentration camp, making flints to swap for bead to stay alve for another day.

chromium: a chromate-based anti-rust paint that had an absurd ingredient: ammonium chloride. An amusing tale of how sometimes things carry just because that is the way that it has always been done.

sulfur: a near miss

titanium: why is that paint so white?

arsenic: a man brings in some sugar to be analysed as he suspects foul play. Much more forgiving that me.

nitrogen: a dream job; being a consultant for a lipstick factory. Using chemistry to explain why the lipstick runs. Also, shows how desperate some people can be for money that they are prepared to crawl around in chicken dung.

tin: dissolving tin in hydrochloric acid in someones kitchen

uranium, silver, tin, vanadium and carbon finish the book, which gives a fascinating isight into the life of a chemist during the middle of the twentieth century as well as ife for a Jew in fascist Italy, survival in concentration camps.

Read while on holiday in Thailand it is now back on my bookshelf.
The blue serial numbers on the back occurred as when going into a fancy shopping centre in Bangkok I put a bottle of water into my back, only to then discover that it had leaked, and causing water damage, and a receipt to become stuck to the back of the book.

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