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Finding Zero
- A Mathemetician's Odyssey to Uncover the Origins of Numbers
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 5 hrs and 56 mins
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Publisher's summary
The story of how we got our numbers - told through one mathematician's journey to find zero.
The invention of numerals is perhaps the greatest abstraction the human mind has ever created. Virtually everything in our lives is digital, numerical, or quantified. The story of how and where we got these numerals, which we so depend on, has for thousands of years been shrouded in mystery. Finding Zero is an adventure-filled saga of Amir Aczel's lifelong obsession: to find the original sources of our numerals. Aczel has doggedly crisscrossed the ancient world, scouring dusty, moldy texts, cross examining so-called scholars who offered wildly differing sets of facts, and ultimately penetrating deep into a Cambodian jungle to find a definitive proof. Here, he takes the listener along for the ride.
The history begins with the early Babylonian cuneiform numbers, followed by the later Greek and Roman letter numerals. Then Aczel asks the key question: Where do the numbers we use today, the so-called Hindu-Arabic numerals, come from? It is this search that leads him to explore uncharted territory, to go on a grand quest into India, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and ultimately into the wilds of Cambodia. There he is blown away to find the earliest zero - the keystone of our entire system of numbers - on a crumbling, vine-covered wall of a seventh-century temple adorned with eaten-away erotic sculptures. While on this odyssey, Aczel meets a host of fascinating characters: academics in search of truth, jungle trekkers looking for adventure, surprisingly honest politicians, shameless smugglers, and treacherous archaeological thieves - who finally reveal where our numbers come from.
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A century ago, outsiders saw China as a place where nothing ever changes. Today, the country has become one of the most dynamic regions on earth. In Oracle Bones, Peter Hessler explores the human side of China's transformation, viewing modern-day China and its growing links to the Western world through the lives of a handful of ordinary people.
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Great Book, except for the narration.
- By DMH on 11-09-10
By: Peter Hessler
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Iberia
- By: James A. Michener
- Narrated by: Larry McKeever
- Length: 37 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Spain is an immemorial land like no other, one that James A. Michener, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author and celebrated citizen of the world, came to love as his own. Iberia is Michener’s enduring nonfiction tribute to his cherished second home. In the fresh and vivid prose that is his trademark, he not only reveals the celebrated history of bullfighters and warrior kings, painters and processions, cathedrals and olive orchards, he also shares the intimate, often hidden country he came to know, where the congeniality of living souls is thrust against the dark weight of history.
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Michener's Masterpiece
- By ahusmc on 09-14-17
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Sacred Treasure - The Cairo Genizah
- The Amazing Discoveries of Forgotten Jewish History in an Egyptian Synagogue Attic
- By: Rabbi Mark Glickman
- Narrated by: Rabbi Mark Glickman
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Indiana Jones meets The Da Vinci Code in an old Egyptian synagogue - the amazing story of one of the most important discoveries in modern religious scholarship. In 1897, Rabbi Solomon Schechter of Cambridge University stepped into the attic of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo, Egypt, and there found the largest treasure trove of medieval and early manuscripts ever discovered.
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Not what I thought it would be, but worth it
- By Lisa on 03-14-12
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China Road
- A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power
- By: Rob Gifford
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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National Public Radio's Beijing correspondent Rob Gifford recounts his travels along Route 312, the Chinese Mother Road, the longest route in the world's most populous nation. Based on his successful NPR radio series, China Road draws on Gifford's 20 years of observing first-hand this rapidly transforming country, as he travels east to west, from Shanghai to China's border with Kazakhstan. As he takes listeners on this journey, he also takes them through China's past and present while he tries to make sense of this complex nation's potential future.
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An Outstanding Book on China
- By Sarda on 08-13-07
By: Rob Gifford
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The Jesuit and the Skull
- Teilhard de Chardin, Evolution, and the Search for Peking Man
- By: Amir D. Aczel
- Narrated by: Barrett Whitener
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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In December 1929, in a cave near Peking, a group of anthropologists and archaeologists that included a young French Jesuit priest named Pierre Teilhard de Chardin uncovered a prehuman skull. The find quickly became known around the world as Peking Man and was acclaimed as the missing link between erect hunting apes and our Cro-Magnon ancestors. It also became a provocative piece of evidence in the roiling debate over creationism versus evolution.
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More skull than Jesuit
- By connie on 10-25-07
By: Amir D. Aczel
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Turn Right at Machu Picchu
- Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time
- By: Mark Adams
- Narrated by: Andrew Garman
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Writer for the New York Times and GQ, Mark Adams is also the acclaimed author of Mr. America. In this fascinating travelogue, Adams follows in the controversial footsteps of Hiram Bingham III, who’s been both lionized and vilified for his discovery of the famed Lost City in 1911—but which reputation is justified?
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Spellbounding, exceptional vocals
- By KLewis on 09-19-15
By: Mark Adams
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Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms
- Journeys into the Disappearing Religions of the Middle East
- By: Gerard Russell
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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In Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms, former diplomat Gerard Russell ventures to the distant, nearly impassable regions where these mysterious religions still cling to survival. He lives alongside the Mandaeans and Ezidis of Iraq, the Zoroastrians of Iran, the Copts of Egypt, and others. He learns their histories, participates in their rituals, and comes to understand the threats to their communities.
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Increase your understanding of the Middle East
- By Shaun on 03-17-15
By: Gerard Russell
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The Riddle of the Labyrinth
- The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code
- By: Margalit Fox
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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In the tradition of Simon Winchester and Dava Sobel, The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code tells one of the most intriguing stories in the history of language, masterfully blending history, linguistics, and cryptology with an elegantly wrought narrative. When famed archaeologist Arthur Evans unearthed the ruins of a sophisticated Bronze Age civilization that flowered on Crete 1,000 years before Greece's Classical Age, he discovered a cache of ancient tablets, Europe's earliest written records.
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Discovery and Translation of Linear B Script
- By Sires on 01-11-14
By: Margalit Fox
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The Jesus Family Tomb
- The Discovery and Evidence That Could Change History
- By: Simcha Jacobovici
- Narrated by: Michael Ciulla
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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The Jesus Family Tomb tells the story of what may very well be the greatest archaeological find of all time: the discovery and investigation of the tomb belonging to Jesus' family. The tomb in question houses ossuaries (bone boxes) with inscriptions bearing the names of Jesus of Nazareth, the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Judas, the son of Jesus.
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Can It Really Be?
- By David on 03-05-07
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Iranian Rappers and Persian Porn
- A Hitchhiker's Adventures in the New Iran
- By: Jamie Maslin
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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When Jamie Maslin decides to hitchhike the entire length of the Silk Road, he decides to travel first and plan later. Then, unexpectedly stranded in Iran - a country he's only read about in newspapers - he wonders whether he'll make it out alive. After crossing the border on foot from Turkey, Maslin finds himself suddenly plunged into the subversive, contradictory world of Iranian subculture, where he is embraced by locals who are happy to show him the true Iran as they see it....
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Entertaining & Informative
- By Bella Bates on 04-18-14
By: Jamie Maslin
What listeners say about Finding Zero
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Darren
- 08-24-15
Not what I expected but I loved it just the same.
The personal journey of this author is by itself quite interesting and the added bonus of all the mathematical insights as well as the historical discovery make for some of the best reading a number junkie like myself could ever ask for. I recommend all of Mr. Aczel's books whether you are a Math hound or not.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Clif
- 02-13-21
Padded
Ideas are interesting. I'll remember for a long time. Lots of repetition and irrelevant detail, just to make it long enough for a book.
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- Richard
- 04-14-16
Anti-Western Theme Throughout
We get it...Eastern civilizations are great and Western ones steal their ideas. The topic is interesting but the book is self-serving.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Heinz
- 10-29-17
Couldn't stop listening
My first audible book that I couldn't stop listening to. Enjoyable start to finish. I would love to meet the author and shake his hand in seeing his vision through. I hope to see k127 for myself someday.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Jose
- 07-04-18
interesting
0 something that we all take for granted and this book. is simple yet so interesting
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2 people found this helpful
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- Peaceful Cyborg
- 11-20-17
Moments of interest...
...but stiff and plodding overall. His Aleph book was far better. Composed by a delightful but rigid intellect.
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- Jeremy Fulmer
- 02-14-17
Not bad for an evolutionists take...
Fairly interesting, but leans heavily upon the dates and historical periods per the theory of evolution. I am not a proponent of said theory, and would be most enthusiastic if somebody would venture a work on this subject from the creationist point of view. As such, I can only regard this as a mere work of entertainment with a factual account of a true story, but historically, it is nearly valueless to creationists.
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- Mike Greene
- 03-03-24
playful nature of the story
really there wasn't much, maybe more about the infinite but zero is amazing itself
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- Jesse F.
- 06-25-24
Mediocre
Very little in the way of historical information or compelling factual conclusions. Rather, this is a anecdotal memoir and justification of one man’s crusade to leave a lasting acedemic mark.
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- customer
- 06-19-16
Lost me with all the sex talk...
Would you try another book from Amir D. Aczel and/or Stefan Rudnicki?
I'd be hesitant to. I'm not sure I would.
What was most disappointing about Amir D. Aczel’s story?
While it started out as an interesting personal narrative concerning math, it descended into talk about these statues and carvings which were in sexual positions, sexually aroused, naked, etc. It just became all about sex. I lost interest. I wanted to listen to a book about math, not depictions of sex and arousal.
Which character – as performed by Stefan Rudnicki – was your favorite?
I didn't get far enough in to say. I dropped the book at about 20% through.
You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?
I liked the casual conversational style. It felt as if the narrator were sitting down and recounting his life to me personally. I just wish he were in front of me so I could say to him: okay, I got the point, there was lots of sex...can we move on now?
Any additional comments?
This is much more of a narrative than a math text. I was personally interested in something more mathematical. Perhaps others would be looking at this book for the same reason. If so, you may find it unsatisfactory for the same reason as I did.
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1 person found this helpful