Under a White Sky by Elizabeth Kolbert
Published 2021 · 55,000 words · about 4 hours at an average pace · Journalism & Reportage, Nature & Environment, Nonfiction, Science & Nature
How hard is Under a White Sky to read?
Under a White Sky scores 26 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it relatively accessible. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 35 out of 100
- Scientific and ecological terminology.
- Sentence structure: 30 out of 100
- Abstraction: 35 out of 100
- Specific cases illustrating larger environmental themes.
- Information density: 48 out of 100
- Dense with science and environmental reporting.
- Narrative indirection: 100 out of 100
- Each chapter follows a case study.
- Symbolic density: 18 out of 100
- White sky as symbol of total human intervention.
- Ironic distance: 22 out of 100
- Mordant wit about humanity's engineering hubris.
- Resolution withholding: 22 out of 100
- No clear solution. The problems compound.
- Structural complexity: 22 out of 100
- Three-part structure with case studies.
How Under a White Sky is regarded
Under a White Sky holds a literary regard score of 44 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.