Flotsametrics and the Floating World: 12/30/18

Flotsametrics and the Floating World by Curtis Ebbesmeyer promises to be about how the washing ashore of Nike shoes inspired an oceanographer to study the oceans' currents. Maybe at some point he gets around to describing the science behind currents, but not in the two thirds of a book that I slogged through.

Rather than being an oceanography book for laypeople, Flotsametrics is a disjointed memoir and a laundry list of dropped names. This book reads like an awkward conversation on a slow commuter train. You know the type — where someone sits next to you and without being asked beings to tell you their entire life story, with all the tangents. You're stuck in your seat in a crowded train and maybe there's equipment problem and you can't escape so you're forced to listen to an hour long monolog.

All I wanted was chapters about different aspects of currents. Maybe different stories of cargo ships losing their containers and things washing up in different places. Instead we get dry chapters about his childhood, his college career and different people he studied under or worked with. Weirdest thing is that he refers to himself in the third person throughout the book.

One star

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