Oil
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Narrated by:
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Robert Meldrum
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By:
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Vaclav Smil
About this listen
Packed with fascinating facts and insight, this book will fuel dinner party debate, and provide listeners with the science and politics behind the world’s most controversial resource.
Without oil, there would be no globalisation, no plastic, little transport, and a global political landscape that few would recognise. It is the lifeblood of the modern world, and humanity’s dependence upon it looks set to continue for decades to come.
In this captivating audiobook, Vaclav Smil explains all matters related to ‘black gold’, from its discovery in the earth, right through to the political maelstrom that surrounds it today.
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Editorial reviews
Essential for anyone living in the modern world, Oil, plumbs the depths of our globalized societies' greatest commodity. In the beginning of the audiobook, Vaclav Smil warns that this book does go into mathematical and scientific detail, and is therefore best suited for those with at least some familiarity with those subjects. The audiobook is a well-researched, unbiased look at how oil affects virtually everyone on this planet. Smil goes into minute detail describing the processes of finding, extracting, refining, and selling oil.
Later, Smil ponders our future in regards to oil. Can we wean our dependence on oil as supplies diminish? What would that future look like? These and many other questions are addressed in this timely audio, narrated by staid and eloquent Robert Meldrum.
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Inspired
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- By: Marty Cagan
- Narrated by: Marty Cagan
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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How do today's most successful tech companies - Amazon, Google, Facebook, Netflix, Tesla - design, develop, and deploy the products that have earned the love of literally billions of people around the world? Perhaps surprisingly, they do it very differently from the vast majority of tech companies. In Inspired, technology product management thought leader Marty Cagan provides listeners with a master class in how to structure and staff a vibrant and successful product organization and how to discover and deliver technology products that your customers will love.
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Great book, terrible audio wanted to ask a refund
- By Srikanth Ramanujam on 11-15-18
By: Marty Cagan
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The Butchering Art
- Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine
- By: Lindsey Fitzharris
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Butchering Art, the historian Lindsey Fitzharris reveals the shocking world of 19th-century surgery on the eve of profound transformation. She conjures up early operating theaters - no place for the squeamish - and surgeons, working before anesthesia, who were lauded for their speed and brute strength. They were baffled by the persistent infections that kept mortality rates stubbornly high. A young, melancholy Quaker surgeon named Joseph Lister would solve the deadly riddle and change the course of history.
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Not one boring moment!
- By WRWF on 12-22-17
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Cosmic Queries
- StarTalk’s Guide to Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We’re Going
- By: James Trefil, Lindsey N. Walker - editor, Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Narrated by: Neil deGrasse Tyson, Lauren Fortgang
- Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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In this illuminating audiobook, Tyson and coauthor James Trefil, a renowned physicist and science popularizer, take on the big questions that humanity has been posing for millennia - How did life begin? What is our place in the universe? Are we alone? - and provide answers based on the most current data, observations, and theories.
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Not worth it
- By Daniel Earl on 03-15-21
By: James Trefil, and others
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Ranger Confidential
- Living, Working, and Dying in the National Parks
- By: Andrea Lankford
- Narrated by: Julia Motyka
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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The real stories behind the scenery of America’s national parks. For 12 years, Andrea Lankford lived in the biggest, most impressive national parks in the world, working a job she loved. She chaperoned baby sea turtles on their journey to sea. She pursued bad guys on her galloping patrol horse. She jumped into rescue helicopters bound for the heart of the Grand Canyon. She won arguments with bears. She slept with a few too many rattlesnakes. Hell yeah, it was the best job in the world! Fortunately, Andrea survived it.
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Depressing from Cover to Cover
- By Drew (@drewsant) on 04-13-15
By: Andrea Lankford
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Grand Transitions
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How the World Really Works
- The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going
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We have never had so much information at our fingertips and yet most of us don’t know how the world really works. This book explains seven of the most fundamental realities governing our survival and prosperity. From energy and food production, through our material world and its globalization, to risks, our environment and its future, How the World Really Works offers a much-needed reality check—because before we can tackle problems effectively, we must understand the facts.
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Let me save you a credit: progress is hard
- By Dalton on 06-06-22
By: Vaclav Smil
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- By See Reverse on 03-02-18
By: Vaclav Smil
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Power Density
- A Key to Understanding Energy Sources and Uses
- By: Vaclav Smil
- Narrated by: Daniel Henning
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this book, Vaclav Smil argues that power density is a key determinant of the nature and dynamics of energy systems. Any understanding of complex energy systems must rely on quantitative measures of many fundamental variables. Power density—the rate of energy flux per unit of area—is an important but largely overlooked measure. Smil provides the first systematic, quantitative appraisal of power density, offering detailed reviews of the power densities of renewable energy flows, fossil fuels, thermal electricity generation, and all common energy uses.
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Let me save you a credit: progress is hard
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What listeners say about Oil
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Michael John Francis
- 05-21-20
Best Overview of Oil Industry
This is the best description of the oil industry. A great author and narrator combine to tell fully detailed journey of the rise of oil with a very sound perspective.
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- Ryan
- 05-24-16
Best book on oil
Very good synopsis of oil. My only complaint is there is so much info packed in here, you almost need to buy the kindle version as well for reference.
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- Charles D Jessup V
- 03-07-19
A very good and Broad overview of oil
I've worked in the industry for a number of years, and this book still taught me a lot that I didn't know. He gives a great historical overview I boil, talks about where it comes from how it's processed oh, and how it's used. a great read for a curious mind.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 01-31-18
good data presented! thank you.
good data presented! I cannot wait to read the energy follow-up. thank you Vaclav Smil.
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- See Reverse
- 12-18-17
Part Encyclopedia
It took focus to get through this book. The author is clear up front that this is a study, more than a story of oil. Although it can feel like listening to someone reading the encyclopedia of oil, there is enough of a story here to be worth the time. I'm not any closer to understanding how oil is drilled, but I have a much deeper understanding of where oil is headed as an industry.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Kurt Emery Matson
- 12-11-14
Oil! 7 Hours of facts and science!
What did you like best about Oil: Bolinda Beginner Guides? What did you like least?
Loved the clarity, wish the book was 4 times as long and more in depth.
What other book might you compare Oil: Bolinda Beginner Guides to and why?
It's as if Bill Gates let his TED talk go for 7 hours, instead 15 minutes. A lot to go over, and well evaluated.
What does Robert Meldrum bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
As a dyslexic person, I couldn't 'just read the book'... So you could say that with Roberts help I was able to absorb 30% of the books facts and 90% of it's conceptions, where as if I read it I would have absorbed maybe 30% of it's facts but 10% of its conceptions...
Did Oil: Bolinda Beginner Guides inspire you to do anything?
Yes, it has inspired me to try and invest in natural gas companies.
Any additional comments?
If you want to know how the world works, I think Vaclav Smil may be an author for you!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Talbot
- 03-20-16
Absolutely Masterful! Comprehensive yet succinct.
Where does Oil: Bolinda Beginner Guides rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Right near the top few % of the few hundred books I've read.
If you could give Oil: Bolinda Beginner Guides a new subtitle, what would it be?
The Definitive Macro Level Oil Industry Summary for Executives, Workers, and Learners of every variety.
Any additional comments?
98% of the time, I thoroughly enjoyed the narrator's accent and delivery! (However, his pronunciation of the word "asphalt" always sounds so odd to my southern Louisiana ears!)
Nevertheless, his accent and highly skilled delivery tremendously enrich the content, and will imbue some reader's experience with a globalized, cosmopolitan tone (and concomitant sense of wonder.) And this meshes perfectly with the underlying content.
Truly an excellent book, and an excellent production.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Don K in Alaska
- 05-09-15
Great summary of the facts
it takes great skill to write a çoncise summary of so much important knowledge. I loved it .
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1 person found this helpful