Numbers Don't Lie cover art

Numbers Don't Lie

71 Things You Need to Know About the World

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Numbers Don't Lie

By: Vaclav Smil
Narrated by: Stephen Perring
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Is flying dangerous? How much do the world's cows weigh? And what makes people happy?

From earth's nations and inhabitants, through the fuels and foods that energise them, to the transportation and inventions of our modern world - and how all of this affects the planet itself - in Numbers Don't Lie, Professor Vaclav Smil takes us on a fact-finding adventure, using surprising statistics and illuminating graphs to challenge lazy thinking.

Packed with 'well-I-never-knew-that' information and with fascinating and unusual examples throughout, we find out how many people it took to build the Great Pyramid, that vaccination yields the best return on investment and why electric cars aren't as great as we think (yet). There's a wonderful mix of science, history and wit, all in bite-sized chapters on a broad range of topics.

Urgent and essential, Numbers Don't Lie inspires listeners to interrogate what they take to be true in these significant times. Smil is on a mission to make facts matter, because after all, numbers may not lie, but which truth do they convey?

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 Vaclav Smil (P)2020 Penguin Audio Environment Science Transportation

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Critic reviews

"There is no author whose books I look forward to more than Vaclav Smil." (Bill Gates)
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A good read and lesson on critical thinking. For so much of our lives we focus on immediacy and disregard more in depth thought. This book is the antithesis of that and stimulates one to think deeper than normal.

Excellent and informative

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Worth listening to. A lot of similar information to his book How The World Really Works, which is a better narrative.

The audio book is too quiet, so difficult to hear when commuting on public transport.

Interesting book

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As the titel says, it's about numbers. Which can make it a bit of dry matter. To be it was definitely worth it nonetheless. Especially with the added pdf file.

Interesting but dry

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I enjoyed this book. Plenty to digest, and I’m sure it’ll influence me to make better choices for my family, myself, and the environment.

Fascinating

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The latest book from Bill Gates is clearly heavily inspired by the work of Václav Smil. The difference is that Smil is not so careful when pointing out where the numbers don't add up.

Similar to latest Gates book but less politically

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This book had some interesting facts, but lacked a narrative, instead it just fired out information. Some of this was interesting so wasn’t.

Had some good facts but became boring

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Very interesting, well presented and easy to understand. Just wish it was longer to learn more!

Wish it was longer!

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there's a problem with the sound mixing and although the content is interesting, I've struggled to listen even at max volume

good stuff but it's too quiet

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All the numbers and statistics used in the book are really interesting. However, they all refer to graphs and charts and that's not very handy. I would have given a 4 star if the narrator wouldn't say "please refer to the pdf attachment" every chapter and if the chapters had a title to follow the story better.

Very interesting but probably better as a book

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Easy to listen, well explained examples of what is happening in the world. Nothing too heavy

Fascinating book

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