…They rise and fall like vaporous civilizations.

Today’s book recommendation – the book I mentioned this week in my ode to the clouds – and one of the books I am currently reading, is The Invention of Clouds by Richard Hamblyn.

It’s about the life and work of Luke Howard – or – as Goethe himself used to call him (with credits to the amazing ‘brainpickings’ blog by Maria Popova): ‘The man who distinguished cloud from cloud’.

Bonus geekery: A passage in this book mentions famous romantic writer William Wordsworth being inspired to write about Howards work.

I stumbled upon it this week, on the very same day I found out that Mr. Wordsworth had lived very near this ancient sweet chestnut tree – which we visited a few hours before I witnessed this amazing display of clouds.

Recursive synchronicity.