Tubes

This book by Andrew Blum is a fascinating insight into what the internet physically looks like. It starts with the author wondering where the wire goes from his house, how it joins other wires and how does data go round the world. He visits a site where an undersea cable is being brought ashore, and he gets as close as most people can to a Google data centre.

The journey takes in some of the history of the internet, how it started and where. The author even visits some of the first sites and machines which were connected as part of the nascent World Wide Web,

I appreciate that it’s a little bit nerdy, a little bit geeky, but I found it a really interesting read. I’d recommend it to anyone with a passing interest in how the world is connected now.