The Bathysphere Book

As we increasingly look towards the skies and beyond to search for meaning and answers beyond the Earth, this book chooses differently, peering into the dark depths of history, towards the first furitve explorations of the bottom of the ocean.

This was really interesting, I picked it up hoping it would help with some work related questions I had and it really did. Very fascinating look at something that not too many people know about. Really enjoyed

An extremely beautiful book—as much a poetic meditation on the nature of exploration as it is a blow-by-blow of what actually occurred. The illustrations are amazing. I cannot recommend highly enough.

A love letter to the allure of ocean exploration. This book made me desperately want to build my own bathysphere. Individual pages resonated with me so much that I had to keep putting it down to have some memories and visions of my future. It works better if you think of it as a collection of vignettes and archival research and don't look for a plot. If anyone wondered how scientists romanticize their jobs, it's like this.

When I stumbled across this title on NetGalley, I immediately requested it. I wanted to know about the breakthroughs in marine biology, this period in U.S. history, this approach to telling a story. I'd also heard of Brad Fox and had been meaning to pick up his 2020 book, but now that his 2023 book had arrived, I figured I may as well start with this one, so I did.

This is a mind-altering prose excursion that I have read three times, and each time I go down, it's like seeing the same ocean in a different permutation of the dive, with a new discovery each time. I am not done with this book. Or it is not done with me. There isn't a conventional structure so I can't tell you exactly how it works or if there is a structure at all or an absence of structure. Everything is connected, but the book is not just one thing; it is a symbiotically stuck-together organism(s), or it is a metamorphic rock, or it is not a creature or thing at all but an environment in which creatures live and things exist. You just keep looking, looking, looking, and at the point where you don't know what small things you're looking for and you're not focusing on anything specific but are gazing indirectly, that's when the bigger picture emerges and takes over, and it has no name.

Descending into this place of unknowingness changed the way bathysphere guy William Beebe thought about knowledge or what could be known.

This was a fascinating book. I think all humans are at least a little enamored with and scared of the ocean (I certainly am). And any account of exploring the depths is bound to gain attention. Rather than simply recounting the history of early bathyspheres and expeditions, Fox tries to capture the emotion the early explorers felt. He includes excerpts from their journals, asides about the history of color, and a flexible format, all of which keep the reader engaged and able to imagine themselves alongside Beebe and Hollister.

What a book! I was genuinely fascinated by its subject from beginning to end, and I found the unorthodox style of nonfiction writing quite charming and greatly admire the author's efforts. This book was thorough, dedicated, and not afraid to truly plunder the depths of the subject at hand. I find deep sea exploration so intriguing, and I was not let down with the descriptions of many, many deep sea creatures. I loved the inclusion of drawings from the time as well. Fox weaves a very intricate narrative of history, science, and philosophy within this book's pages that I was really glad to have experienced. The writing made me reflect deeply on nature, which is exactly what I look for in a book like this.

I do think the novel suffered from loose editing, and at times while I was reading, I found myself a bit lost as to what or who exactly I was reading about. I much prefer narrative nonfiction with heavier prose styles over drier texts, and was pleased to find so much beautiful language in this read. However, it could have used some more focus in my opinion on the subjects at hand. Certain tangents felt earned and important (I loved the inclusion of topics such as racism and misogyny within these fields at the described historical moment and was so pleasantly surprised by their inclusion!) while others felt unnecessary and bogged down the overall flow. I almost credit the author for way in which this text ebbs and flows in its direction-- but as a reader, it was in the end more of a hindrance than something I think truly worked on a practical level. I would have liked longer sections within the chapters, and a bit more detail on the dives/science/Beebe and Hollister themselves, rather than so many tangents on other historical figures in the narrative, though I understand the desire to include the context of it all.

Overall this was a very neat little book that I have a lot more positive feelings about than not! I would absolutely be interested in any other nonfiction this author may put out in the future (or even fiction)! Utterly unique, with an impressive and admirable lens toward the deep sea, humanity, and all of nature at large.