Fri, 29 Mar, 2024

Book Club Completes “The Grand Design”.

By Book Club

The Book Club has completed its final discussion session on the book “The Grand Design”. All the discussion sessions on the book were about why does the universe behave in the way it does. Few Book club members and the guest readers shared their experience throughout all the discussion sessions. Let us have a look at the experiences that the members have shared:

The book "The Grand Design" was an interesting book. I have always wanted to read and it was on my "to-read-list-of-books". The book is written by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow. They put forward many ideas about the universe, how it was formed, how it is behaving and what the future for astrophysics could be.

At first the book reads in a simple manner. The scientific terms are easy to understand and we can wrap our heads around them easily since we have already studied them when we were in high school. The later chapters are not difficult but also not easy to understand either. The reader needs to be focused on the idea that is written and what the writer(s) want to convey. One of the lines from the book, "Simplicity is a matter of taste" was particularly easy to understand but the discussion session was even more interesting.

My experience being in the book club was interesting and would like to join future sessions as well. The literature that this club promotes is rather riveting. The Book Club a.k.a The Literature Club is a fun, exciting and fascinating club and it was wonderful discussing "The Grand Design" with them.

Kundan Rana (Guest Reader)

First of all, I was excited about the book. But in course of time, I got to realized that I am not much into scientific facts. All those theories could not keep me interested till the end of the book. But the discussion sessions along with sip of coffee were really good. More than the book, I thoroughly learned from listening to the participants. We all were with different views, thoughts and perspectives which made us more inquisitive towards exploring things.

Utkrista K.C (Member)

It was majestic, that night. I was in a residential meditation center in the heights of Buddhanilkantha. The nighttime sky was covered by bright shining stars. Gazing at the beautiful sky, I felt a deep urge to understand the reason behind it's beauty. And, since that day, I have always been fascinated about the cosmos that we live in. I wanted to know what's out there and what makes the cosmos so beautiful.

To kill my curiosity, I started to read books about the cosmos, watched numerous YouTube videos and documentaries. When the book club, decided to read 'The Grand Design', my excitement had no bounds. Immediately, after getting my copy of the book, I jumped right in and completed a couple of chapters. The book has used very simple language and common examples to explain about the complex universe. I was struggling to contemplate the 'Quantum Theory' and the book made it easier for me to comprehend. Any layman could have easily understood the content in the book which is unlikely for a scientific book. But, more than the book, I learned a lot from the discussions we had in the book club sessions. Some of the seniors added to the content in the book and gave interesting analogies to describe it vividly. The discussions were accompanied by philosophical debates on universe, life and various other topics.

Upon completing the book, I have been able to comprehend a lot about the cosmos and simultaneously sparked new curiosity. I would recommend this book to anyone who is curious to know about the world he/she lives in.

Sushil Awale (Member)