This book is beautiful. This book is bold. This book displays passion and literary mastery. It is a must-read. If this is enough for you, go get the book and consume it.

If you need more....

Normally, I find myself thinking of works similar to whatever it is I am reading. However, I experienced something unique for me while reading a book: Underland reminded me of several books I viewed as the exact opposite to itself... works that were bland, repetitive, and uninspiring:

-The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World (Wulf)
-Einstein's Dreams (Lightman)
-The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail-But Some Don't (Silver)

These titles all take a central, interesting idea, and beat it into the ground so thoroughly as to make reading the book laborious and unenjoyable. In these cases, I blame the authors, because there is clearly lots to say about their respective topics. Their approaches are unimaginative; this leads to repetitive chapters; I was left wholly unsatisfied after each.

Underland is the exact opposite. Its central idea is so thoroughly explored and so beautifully presented that the experience of reading it was both informative and almost magical. Each chapter builds upon the previous, but can stand alone if need be. Macfarlane seamlessly switches between poetry disguised as prose, and a more narrative voice. In so doing you get short bouts of learning and narrative intrigue interspersed with periods of spiritual weightlessness, melancholy, and day-dreaming. Even as I read over this review before submitting, I am disappointed by how poorly it relays the experience of reading Underland. Just go read it.