I'm looking for a book...

Right now I'm perusing Barnes & Noble looking for a good book with a lot of information on the formation of the planet and detailed information on each of the geological periods that the planet went through until now. If anyone has any recommendations it would be most helpful.

Other than my love of history I'm fascinated by the universe and the planets. I'll be looking for books on those as well (as money allows). I have one ordered my book club called "The Idiots Guide To Astronomy" (or something like that).

Thanks.

Not really what I'm looking for but this looks interesting:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Whe...9780500285732/

It's about the mass extinction at the end of the Precambrian period where over 90% of life on the planet was wiped out.

most of my books came from the several class i had in school. so that not going to be much help
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/howto/basics a link that may help with some basics also

also if you sign up you get access to the charts.

the scope i picked up, come with software, that run on this laptop, that i just tell it whatn i want to see and it auto aligns the scope if the object is in sight.

hm sorry i guess that is not much help

i just bought a book titled 'Bang! the complete history of the universe', written by patrick moore, chris lintott and brian may, the guitarist for Queen. and i also got it signed by him.
haven't read it yet but will soon. it's coffeetable book size and has some great photos of the universe in it

A couple of years ago I said for my New Years resolution I wanted to learn about quantum physics. Ever pick up a book by Stepgen Hawking-pretty darn intense. But I bought at B&N the book The Elegant Universe by Brian Green (pulitzer prize finalist) that I hope to tackle early this summer.

Gail, if you like Stephen Hawking, read Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos. Awesome book on discovering the Universe. Lots of physics in it, but tremendously interesting.

Essay, not on the formation of the earth, but if you haven't read it "the selfish gene" is an interesting DNA/gene theory book. Quick read.

Thanks for the suggestions. All of the books look really good, I'm adding them to my list of books to get.

Bruce, that web site is pretty cool!