I done read a book! Lemme tell you about it!

I finished the book “Jewels: A Secret History”. If you’re like me and you just cannot get enough of the bling, this is a good book for you. I learned a great deal about my sparkly friends. For example, diamonds aren’t rare. Really, I’m not kidding. Rubies and emeralds, they’re rare. Diamonds are all over the damn place – Russia, Canada, Africa. How the diamond market works is De Beers pretty much owns all of the diamonds and releases them in little batches so they have complete control over how many are circulating at any time. Another interesting fact: sapphires are colorless in the dark. When you introduce them to light, they do this weird scientific thing that I barely understand, they exchange molecules back and forth, zip zip zip, and that makes them blue. If they don’t exchange a great deal of molecules back and forth, they’re not as blue. So when you see a sapphire, it’s doing some cool transfer of molecules, it’s not just a rock interpreting light rays. Oh, one more cool fact: diamonds, while known as the strongest stone, are actually quite brittle and can break and crack easily. One of the least breakable stones? Jade. Even though it is easily scratched, because it is fibrous, you can grind it under your heel and it won’t splinter like a diamond.

Anyway, long story short, if you like learning new things, I would recommend this book. The author speaks to the miners and the dealers and you really get a picture of the whole process. It’s fascinating.

Jewels: A Secret History

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