Lapidarium: The Secret Lives of Stones

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It’s a stunningly presented and designed book, with color-coordinated pictures and beautiful illustrations by artist Nicky Pasterfield for each stone, evoking the charming pictures in old geological and scientific publications.

I truly lost myself reading this book and discovering how important stones are to us all even in our modern age.The moment I stopped reading, it literally left my head and I couldn't tell you a single thing that had been mentioned so far. Judah's pages are filled with eccentrics and inventors, with the obsessive pursuit of beauty, the hopeful constructions of belief and the thirst for progress and improvement. This book talks a lot about the history of stones, how they came to be, their presence in geological and human history, and culture. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. We are told of incredible creations and decorations, large and small, carved from these prized stones.

In her fascinating book, Lapidarium: The Secret Lives of Stones, Hettie Judah explores the hidden history of these lithic marvels, from their role in ancient cultures to their modern-day influences and uses. Find out how a Greek monster created coral, moon rock explains the history of Earth’s only satellite and obsidian inspired the world’s favourite computer game. In Lapidarium , renowned art critic Hettie Judah explores the unexpected stories behind sixty stones that have shaped and inspired human history, from Dorset fossil-hunters to Chinese philosophers, Catherine the Great to Michelangelo.

Each chapter focuses on a different stone or rock and its significance in art, history or literature. I wanted to love it – I think there should be loads of books encouraging us to reconnect with the natural world, to come away with some general knowledge about our planet and our surroundings and how it's shaped human civilisation at large. Inspired by the lapidaries of the ancient world, Lapidarium is a collection of essays about sixty different stones that have influenced our shared history. Each essay isn't actually about a stone, it's a niche tale about people with a connection to the stone in question, and it's the people that the essay focuses on.

As much as I liked the Rani of Kapurthala's crescent-shaped emerald, I really can't say I know anything about emeralds in general after reading this book. Referencing science, history, chemistry, physics, literature, philosophy, and pop culture, Lapidarium is an extravagantly storied chamber of stones, the next best thing to having a secret sparkling cache of curios at your fingertips.I want information I won't find in the first minute of a wikipedia scroll, and I want something memorable enough to take away. Each stone is given a place in history like a snug setting and paced within the cultural context of its impact. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. It could seem a dry book but it's quite fascinating as there's historical, geological facts and the lore for each of them. As well as feeling good, it’s a beautifully presented book, with colours running through it, from the markers on the side to the muted colours in the depths near the spine.

These are stories about rocks, it’s not a geological textbook, but I learned a hell of a lot on the way, mostly I learned how little I know about geology and how cool rocks are. She breaks down the history of each individual stone and how it’s impacted the human race through history.The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.