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Title: Oil Notes by Rick Bass, Elizabeth Hughes, John Graves ISBN: 0-87074-383-X Publisher: Southern Methodist Univ Pr Pub. Date: October, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.62 (8 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Oil and Life
Comment: Rick Bass, a petroleum geologist and environmental activist is known for his knowledge of the earth and oil. The book, Oil Notes, written by Bass, gives the readers the feeling that they are petroleum geologists. Bass allows the reader to understand what he is referring to and how everything on an oil rig works. At first glance or first read, the reader might think that the book is solely about oil. But as the reading goes on, the reader finds out differently. Oil Notes is not only about oil; it is an analogy for life. Bass also uses searching for the number one oil field, the one that will make someone rich, as an analogy for a man trying to find his place on earth.
Throughout the book, many facts that are in oil exploration also coexist in life. For example, Bass claims that "Nothing lasts. Old seas are buried" (42). Not only is Bass talking about the soon to be scarcity of oil, he is talking about life. No matter how much you try, you will not live forever. Rocks do not last forever; eventually they become stones, pebbles, and eventually sand. That is the same with life. Life does not last forever. Unfortunately, death is inevitable. Everything that is thought to last forever...love, hatred, and friendship...will cease to exist when the person dies.
Another example of life being told in terms of oil is when Bass talks about leadership in the field of geology: "A leader-in a profession of men and women who cannot be led, and will not" (135). Bass says that those are the type of geologists that everyone needs to stay away from. They are the geologists with the egos that are bigger than their head. In life, staying away from people like that would help a lot. People with big egos refuse to help people and also refuse to be helped. They are solely dependent on themselves. Unfortunately, they will not learn in life until they drastically fail at something. Only then will they hopefully realize that there are sources other than themselves.
Time and change coexist and have a big effect on the oil business and life. Everything revolves around time. Bass is amazed that in a lifetime "you will see a picture more different than could ever be imagined" (134). Things can change drastically in a lifetime. Just look around a city. Remember what it was like 10 years ago or 20 years ago. No matter what duration of time, change always occurs. In the oil business, drilling can go smooth for fifteen hours, and then it becomes tough due to different rock. The flow of oil can trickle and then it can spew out one-thousand barrels per day. It can change that drastically in a short period of time. In life, the health of a person can drastically change as the person ages.
In the oil business assumption can make or break your career as an oil person. In life assumption can do the same. Bass says, in reaction to not knowing about your oil well, "You've got to be careful not to judge it too quickly or too harshly" (145). If a person assumes an oil well is in shale, and uses a bit that only goes through shale, it will ruin their day to find out that the $10,000 bit is useless because they are actually drilling through granite. The oil well can be lost and the geologist can be out of a job. In life, the same can occur. If a person judges another person before getting to know them, that can prove to be a big mistake. Maybe that person could have been a good friend or something more.
Finding the perfect oil field is similar to one's efforts to try to find out where they belong in the world. Bass claims that "Someday I am going to drill my own well. There is no geologist who does not dream of this. It is what you are after" (89). In any profession, a goal is set. A pilot might want to fly a certain plane or so many hours. In oil, the goal is to own a big money making petroleum company, owning a well. Life provides goals similar to those and with a similar pay off. The fact that Bass says "someday" means he is going to try. That is an analogy for life. A person may look all of their life to find out who they are, where they belong. Once the person "knows himself" then the world is his. They know what they are capable of and what they are made of.
Not only is Oil Notes about oil, it is about life in general, about one person's effort to find their place in the world.
Rating: 3
Summary: Nice Narrative, Nice Bias
Comment: Rick Bass's little oil book, originally published in 1989, is a good read for those who know something about oil production. But it is dated, very badly, by recent developments in the energy sector. One of his "notes" -- page 19 of the SMU edition -- states "I hate coal." This goes to two pages of nonsense written by someone years ago, like me, that could not have anticipated the significance of coalbed methane.
If you read this book, realise it is from a well-head mentality. This oil genius probably has never spent a day underground or a minute to understand why we must mine coal. Perhaps he could run his word processor off the crude pumped into a generator adjacent to his office. That's a patent I'd like to see.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Geologists Relates
Comment: Oddly enough, I was far from home doing field work in North Georgia when I found Oil Notes in a little bookstore. I am a geologist. However, unlike Rick Bass my job was to look for fresh drinking water, not oil. I found time to read his book between logging boreholes and setting wells. By the time I was finished I (with the book) I had a renewed interest and spirit in my profession and in the environment around me. Rick Bass found a way to express in words, the excitement and passions associated with being a field geologist, environmentalist and a man in love.
Oil Notes is a fantastic book, and Rick Bass is an equally outstanding author. I have since read everyone of his books. He vividly defines his feelings and passions in everything he writes about, be it drilling for oil or studing wolves.
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Title: Winter : Notes from Montana by Rick Bass, Elizabeth Hughes ISBN: 0395611504 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 20 January, 1992 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Fiber by Rick Bass, Elizabeth Hughes Bass, Elizabeth Hughes Bass ISBN: 0820320633 Publisher: University of Georgia Press Pub. Date: October, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Colter: The True Story of the Best Dog I Ever Had by Rick Bass ISBN: 0618127364 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 2001 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: The Deer Pasture by Rick Bass, Elizabeth Hughes Bas ISBN: 0393314359 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: June, 1996 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Sky, the Stars, the Wilderness by Rick Bass ISBN: 0395924758 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 30 September, 1998 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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