Some kids get to go camping during their school breaks. Others get to go to summer camps where they roughhouse and have fun. Still other children get Some kids get to go camping during their school breaks. Others get to go to summer camps where they roughhouse and have fun. Still other children get to go to the most coveted place of all - Disneyland. Binh and his siblings get to go to a silent meditation retreat with their parents. They aren't allowed to speak, let alone to play. Instead, they have to spend their time in utterly silent contemplation trudging around the grounds. Fun, right?
Worst of all, they're leaving right on the heels of Binh nearly getting suspended after getting into a fight at school. This isn't like him, and he's shutting out both his parents and his siblings refusing to talk about what happened. All he's doing to cope is just playing his Gameboy and shutting out the rest of the world.
Maybe the retreat will help?
Minh Lê has written a graphic novel that has universal appeal, in spite of the book focusing upon Buddhist teachings. It was easy to relate to Binh's reticence to open up after what he went through, and to take away valuable lessons from the stories of the Buddha's life and past lives and learn to apply it to the world around him. Coupled with Chan Chau's illustrations framing various lessons through the lens of classic video games I can't imagine this book not appealing to just about anyone.
Reminiscent of SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD, ENLIGHTEN ME has an appeal that will easily cross generations. There are some very valuable lessons within the book, and I am hoping readers will leave the book eager to grow their own communities and let others in rather than suffering in silence. After all, don't we all want to wake up?...more
My review of this book, and interview with the author, will appear on The Folklore Podcast website. I'll update with links as soon as it's live.My review of this book, and interview with the author, will appear on The Folklore Podcast website. I'll update with links as soon as it's live....more
Shepherd Siegel is a former rock musician and a current activist. He's one of the most interesting thinkers that you are liable to come across, and h Shepherd Siegel is a former rock musician and a current activist. He's one of the most interesting thinkers that you are liable to come across, and his writing conveys it well. This book is full of wit and and keen sense of wonder at the world at large. Yes, some of the stories he's telling you you already likely know - the section on Bugs Bunny and Andy Kaufman come to mind - but have you heard it from this perspective before? Have you ever sat and considered Andy Kaufman a Holy Fool, or Bugs Bunny the quintessential modern American Trickster? No, I didn't think so....
Siegel presents the Trickster as not just an archetype sequestered into Jungian analysis or literary tropes, but instead a vibrant figure upon the worldwide stage as a catalyst for change. Often tragic, but always impossible to look away from, he chases the Tricksters of politics and art through modern history from the dadas to the Burning Man Festival. In true Trickster fashion, he sets the world atop its head and forces you to consider whether or not this image is perhaps a bit more true to life than the way you've been looking at it all along.
Siegel considers true play something society needs more of. (It's difficult, after all, to war while laughing.) By the end of the book most readers are liable to agree with him. The difficulty, of course, is how to access that original notion of play in a society that has become so deeply regimented that by the age of 4 most children are being taught to keep score rather than just play in an open-ended non-competitive fashion. Yet Siegel sees examples of such open-ended play, and offers possibilities for more of it within our own lives. Burning Man and the Fremont Solstice Parade - the latter of which a brilliant interview elaborates upon - are paragons of possibility for further adaptive open-ended play.
In short - this book is great, and Siegel is a figure more of us should be listening to. I look forward to reading more of him. ...more
[Author: Michael Schur] is the man behind The Good Place, a show that I got into this year thanks to a friend of mine's obsession with it. Watching Th[Author: Michael Schur] is the man behind The Good Place, a show that I got into this year thanks to a friend of mine's obsession with it. Watching The Good Place is a bit like taking an intro to philosophy class. There are episodes detailing all sort of various philosophical notions - the entire premise of the show (What makes a person good?) is the basis behind pretty much all philosophy. Hell, there's an entire episode dedicated to The Trolley Problem. It's great. It also leaves you wanting more. But aren't philosophy books all kinda... boring...?
Well, this one isn't.
Michael Schur, despite not really having been much interested in philosophy before the idea for The Good Place happened, has written a basic introduction to philosophy that is riveting to read and hilarious. Not to mention the audiobook is narrated by The Good Place cast. It's brilliant, it's entertaining, and you'll come away from it wanting to be a better person. Isn't that the best possible outcome?
I loved this book for a lot of the same reasons I loved the tv show. This book understands the fundamental desire within all of us to be better people, and just how complicated acting on that desire can be. There are a lot of things we get weighed down with nowadays, too much information, too much complication... and this book helps thread those needles to explain a variety of solutions to those problems so you can just... do your best. Be good. Others might then follow....more
This is a New Age book of philosophy of sorts that is meant to reveal the secrets of Hermeticism to the world. The author of it remains oThe Kybalion.
This is a New Age book of philosophy of sorts that is meant to reveal the secrets of Hermeticism to the world. The author of it remains obscure, but there is a decent idea that the person who cobbled it together was indeed one of the forefathers of New Age Thought. This book still sells an insane amount of copies and is highly lauded by a wide group of people. Hey, without this book we wouldn't get such classics as The Secret or, you know, Blavatsky's reams of writing.
Which should pretty much tell you all you need to know about how I feel about it.
The Kybalion is alternatively so dense that I found my eyes glazing over while reading it or so utterly offensive to my sensibilities that I had to stop and put it down for a few minutes to figure out just what it was I was feeling. There are good ideas in here - don't get me wrong - but some of it is just downright grating to me. It trots out old concepts newly polished to make them seem unique and is just so much of what bothers me about New Age thought in general.
Everything vibrates, so if you're anxious you just need to lower your vibrations and then you'll be calm. You can think your way out of depression. Everything has both genders so therefore gender identity means nothing. Love and hate are the same, just different vibrations. Everything, everything is in your mind. So you can think your way out of, you know, everything including depression.
Oh, also? If you have a good life, you deserve it. If you have a bad life, you deserve it. If you didn't do anything to deserve either thing? Well, it was probably your past life's actions.
The Body Fantastic, Frank Gonzalez-Crussi’s new book from MIT Press, implores the reader to move away from Cartesian Dualism to an understanding of the body through the concept of Valery’s Fourth, or quantum, body. Our conception of our bodies, Gonzalez-Crussi argues, is not solely informed by its mechanical functions or how others see us. Our corporeality instead is partially moulded by our native folklores, history, and myriad other influences we encounter and absorb throughout our lives.
Every chapter is dedicated to a different part of the human body, although not necessarily the parts one might expect. Reams of paper have been dedicated to the heart and the brain, after all, but what of the stomach? What of saliva and urine, hair and feet? And in spite of us all having once spent time in the uterus, it seems to be a distressingly underexplored subject of folkloric study - but this book delves deep into the past where it was once considered a sentient animal and the source of all female thought.
Gonzalez-Crussi intersperses his medical history with fascinating asides, and uses the many varied parts of our bodies to better understand ourselves and our place in the universe. While one might expect a discussion on the uterus to devolve into sexism in medical practice, one would less expect it to reveal Casanova to be outed as an early champion of women’s rights. Similarly, discussions of disordered eating end up showing the excesses of American culture. The feet pave the way for discussions on death, foot fetishes in the 1500s, and the development of literary fairy tales. Through a discussion of orality Gonzalez-Crussi examines why we are drawn to eat food that hurts us and what that might say about both our psychology and our cultural conceptions of masculinity.
As a long time reader of books on both medical history and folklore I was both delighted and surprised by how much of this book was completely new to me. Gonzalez-Crussi draws from unique and numerous primary sources -- most would know about the man who ate a plane over the course of two years and the gluttinos Tarrare, but how many would know about Madame D’Aulnoy’s travels in Spain in the 1500s and the Spanish court’s manifold rituals surrounding feet? Likewise, people are fairly familiar with the practice of urine therapy these days - but how many are familiar with the Roman’s obsession with saliva as a healing salve and its connections to early Christianity?
I cannot recommend this book enough. While the book is a treasure trove of information, it is not a difficult one to read unless you are particularly squeamish. I guarantee that the book will contain information you’ve not read before, and that it will fascinate and delight any new reader. It is impossible to come away from it without a new curiosity about the most familiar thing to all of us: our own body....more
This book was cited as lifechanging in much the same way The Alchemist was to me, which should have been aThis book was... seriously overhyped to me.
This book was cited as lifechanging in much the same way The Alchemist was to me, which should have been a huge tip off to me that this book wouldn't be quite what I wanted it to be. The Alchemist just kind of irritated me for the most part. The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse didn't lean as deeply into the New Age Positivity Mentalism that The Alchemist did, thankfully. It was just a bit... twee. Which is kind of the point.
The book is an art book more than anything else, and the artwork is stunningly beautiful. It's done in gorgeous ink and looks like you're holding the original pages. You can see where the ink dripped, the swoops of the lines. I can't emphasize enough how gorgeously drawn the book is - there are pages that I would love to have prints of to hang up on the wall. The artwork is thrilling, particularly the fox - but that might just be my personal penchant for the animal.
The text of the book is stark compared to the illustrations. The sentences are fleeting, each one a small encapsulation of a thought or a concept that is meant to be meditated upon. Cake, the mole says, makes everything better. The horse is a bastion of wisdom. The fox is anxious and shy, but learns to trust. The boy, the boy is there to learn from all of them and to be their friend.
It's a bit of a modern Winnie the Pooh, but without as much of a narrative drive as Winnie the Pooh has. In the right mood, it is something I would adore. In the wrong mood, I'm too cynical to get as much out of it as I would like apart from enjoying the art so much. So, I split the difference with the rating here. I can understand fully why so many love the book, and it's likely one that I would get for a certain person in my life as well. Just not quite the thing for me....more
Rachael prescribed this book to me, and everyone else, shortly after finishing it. It took me a little while to get to it - but I am so very happy thaRachael prescribed this book to me, and everyone else, shortly after finishing it. It took me a little while to get to it - but I am so very happy that I did.
This book is an absolute delight. Like The Kaiju Preservation Society it is a delightful escape from the horrors of the world we presently live in. While KPS works to entertain in the way an action adventure movie might, A Psalm For the Wild-Built does the same thing in a much gentler way. It eases you away from modern society and into the wilds of nature, while also allowing you to wonder about your place in it all.
KPS is about letting you learn to be part of a community and that community still matters. A Psalm for the Wild-Built lets you know that you, just being you, is enough. It is a book about self-acceptance, and about learning to understand the world around you and yourself through that. It is beautiful and as comforting as a fresh mug of tea on a cool autumn morning.
This book was precisely what I needed, and I think I'll be returning to it time and time again. It easily slid into my favorites, and I found myself tearing up thinking about it now and again. Just a gorgeous little philosophical book that will warm your heart and leave you thinking about what you owe to others around....more
Something about Campbell speaks to me on a deep, deep level. Reading him is like a revelation every time. The l Joseph Campbell is a favorite of mine.
Something about Campbell speaks to me on a deep, deep level. Reading him is like a revelation every time. The layers are peeled back, and myths and folklore come to life in the modern day. We're all on our own grail quest, Campbell writes, and each one of us must slay our own dragon. Pathways to Bliss is telling the same story The Hero With a Thousand Faces tells. Naturally. The monomyth is laid bare in this series of lectures, along with how it is beneficial to day to day living.
Ultimately, this book serves as a bit of a refresher on The Hero With a Thousand Faces. If you want Campbell at his best, simply pick up that book. If you want more Campell, however, this is where you will find it. The conclusions are reexamined, and you can almost hear Campbell laugh at himself as he realizes how he's been telling the same story all along. Yet it is still a story well worth hearing.
I enjoyed this book in particular for the final chapter wherein the Heroine's Journey is mentioned and examined. The challenges to Campbell were a bit invigorating, his answer's, interesting. The woman who questioned him at the talk I would have loved to have heard more of. I'm still thinking about what she said, and wondering. Ultimately, I suppose I'll just need to read more Campbell to see if he ever formulated a truly in depth response to her questions.
Not that I'm complaining. Campbell is always fun reading....more
Previous reviewers have described this book as "dense with information" and I would like to echo that assessment. This book is like trying to run on sPrevious reviewers have described this book as "dense with information" and I would like to echo that assessment. This book is like trying to run on sand - it requires close attention, active reading, and an exertion of effort that many (myself included) aren't entirely used to. The book is challenging and rewards active reading; in that way, it was a very refreshing read.
The book is a chronological study of pagan philosophical thought and belief. The book begins, naturally, with the Presocratic philosophers and continues on through present day and a brief hope for the future. The book showcases the evolution of the philosophies, how incredibly influential pagan thought has been, and how it is once more beginning to find a voice in present-day institutions.
This book will challenge any reader, but it will also reward them handsomely. It is fascinating, never boring, and utterly illuminating. There are many gems scattered throughout the text on how to live a good life. Pagan thought has much to offer us, and indeed, could lead us all towards a better and more humane future for all.
I look forward to mining through the texts referenced in this book and to reading more of Brendan Myers' work. ...more
Fame is a difficult book to categorize. It isn't a memoir, but it also isn't the academic dissection of the phenomenon that Justine Bateman initiall Fame is a difficult book to categorize. It isn't a memoir, but it also isn't the academic dissection of the phenomenon that Justine Bateman initially set out to write. It's a messy, haphazard, emotional dive into the experience of being famous and then suddenly... not. The slow slide into a lack of relevance that, ironically, often involves a healthier sense of self and self-worth for the person experiencing it. If they can escape the black holes of substance abuse, scandal, and depression that so many are victim to.
Fame definitely achieves what it sets out to. By the end of the book I felt I had a better idea of what goes on in the lives of those who get famous young. Personalities are not fully formed, and the experiences of their youth don't shape them into the fully formed people they otherwise would become. You get used to others talking about you only, and the superficiality of that kind of experience. It becomes you. When all of that is taken away... people struggle. The internet, likewise, has changed things greatly by allowing others the ability to anonymously spew the hate they feel. That, also, contributes to the breaking point.
While an interesting book, I would have preferred to read the academic version that Justine Bateman had originally been writing. This book seems as if it would be better suited for an audiobook, or an in-depth article rather than a book. That having been said, I still did enjoy it and it gave me a lot to think about. Having friends in the entertainment industry, I recognized a lot of what was written here as ringing true. It's an interesting, and important topic (fame, and how it effects us all in the age of social media) and one I hope gets written about and explored more. This just wasn't the right book on the topic for me, personally, but I'm sure others will very much like it. The author is certainly one to admire for her perspective and honesty....more
Don't take the two star rating to mean this was not a good book. I found the book extremely interesting, and learned a decent amount from it. The ratiDon't take the two star rating to mean this was not a good book. I found the book extremely interesting, and learned a decent amount from it. The rating comes more from my constant puzzling over whether or not living in a hole in the ground, eating earthworms, aphids, and larvae, etc. is truly necessary to embody the mind of an animal. Along with this is my concern with the notion that you don't need to lose yourself in order to become an animal shamanistically speaking. Isn't a certain degree or dissolution of self necessary to truly embody the other? You give up yourself for a new experience - isn't anything less than that a bit problematic? I don't think The Peregrine or H is For Hawk should be viewed as 'lesser than' for the grief encountered within, but rather on equal footing or moreso to this author's experience. Same for Peregrine Spring. Everyone lost something, but gained much more from the experience. Such is life.
This book is full of interesting ideas about the animal experience, more philosophy than much else. The bibliography in the back was great and pretty much all of the books are now on my to-read as a result. I just couldn't help but want more from what was written in here - why wasn't every chapter as long as the badger one and as well thought? I felt the question of prey vs. predator, and in particular the section on swifts, deserved more attention. And why choose an otter if you resent them so much? Why not attempt to better understand, or choose another creature?
This book felt incomplete to me. At the end there wasn't as much offer of how one can help the animals or better empathize with them. It was just a singular experience with little hint as to how you can incorporate the understanding gained to better the environment or one's own life. I don't think everyone needs to defecate on the ground to mark territory to get into the mindspace of another creature, nor do they need to eat grass to empathize.
It's a very strange book, indeed, but that doesn't make it a bad one....more
I wasn't entirely certain what I would get when I first picked up this book. The Dinosaur Artist. The subtitle explains what it is about a bit more cI wasn't entirely certain what I would get when I first picked up this book. The Dinosaur Artist. The subtitle explains what it is about a bit more clearly, but until I opened it I didn't know it was about the illegal trafficking of Mongolian fossils, the trade itself, and in particular the controversial case of T. Bataar. It touched upon the purchases of the skulls by Nicolas Cage and Leonardo di Caprio. It went in depth into the debate of whether or not amateur fossil collectors should be allowed to ply their trade, or if it should only be open to the professionals - a more complicated argument than one may expect.
Paige Williams wove together a complex story that ranged from Genghis Khan to Mary Anning and her fossil collection along the seaside that resulted in the famous poem. She sells seashells by the sea shore. Only those sea shells included one of the best preserved plesiosaurs known to science. It examined the history of Mongolia, of the Tuscon Fossil and Mineral Show. Of Gainesville, Florida, of all places. Endless bickering, competition, and the wonder of fossils and the passion they engender within those who love them - everything has its place and together made the trade and collection a joy to dive into.
This story, incredibly recent, still has bearings upon the modern paleontology practice. Recently even Spinosaurus came under fire. Mongolia is a fossil rich nation, and one that has yet to fully develop into what it could. They could, and should, be the world leaders in fossil collection and dinosaur study. They should be churning out the best paleontologists in the world, their museum should put the Chicago Field Museum to shame. It is said they have enough fossils and full specimens within the Gobi to fully stock their museums every four years, switching out specimens so everyone may revel in their beauty. Perhaps, perhaps now they will begin to celebrate their prehistoric heritage along with that Genghis Khan created.
While the future of everything hidden within the Gobi is in question, there could be a bright and vibrant future for Mongolia. One can hope, one can dream, and just perhaps.. one can watch as more and more beautiful stunning dinosaurs are found beneath the shifting sands, properly recorded, and mounted for display within Mongolia where they belong....more
A Magical World was not a bad book - don't get my rating wrong - it was simply not the book that I expected it to be based upon the title and descrip A Magical World was not a bad book - don't get my rating wrong - it was simply not the book that I expected it to be based upon the title and description. I was expecting, and hoping, for a book about the history of superstitious thought and how it changed over time. I was expecting reference to the fairy faith, and the very different way that the world was viewed before the advent of the scientific revolution. I was hoping for the analysis of how one could contend with something being both a stone and a troll at the same time. A world where dragons and giants exist, but not here, simply the next valley over... that sort of thing.
Unfortunately, that very much was not what this book was.
This book, instead, was a very interesting look at the change in religious and scientific thought over the period before mentioned. Each chapter focused upon different people, offering small biographies and commentary on how they changed the world around them - whether they were accepted in their time or not, and how their beliefs and discoveries were informed by the time in which they live. While the book was fascinating, and indeed very interesting, it was also a bit dry in its delivery of facts and not what I had hoped it would be.
So, this is a good book for what it truly is, and an interesting one. Just not what I was looking for. Still, quite a nice history of church and science and how the two intersect. Also, a rather more detailed biography of Newton exists in it than what I had ever read before... and it did a good job of correcting commonly held beliefs about Galileo, Bruno, Newton, etc. that still get passed on today. So, kudos to it for that....more
Like others, this book was not entirely what I was expecting it to be.
Rather than a wholly philosophical look at modern people's estrangement from natLike others, this book was not entirely what I was expecting it to be.
Rather than a wholly philosophical look at modern people's estrangement from nature, this book takes both a wider and more narrow view at the destructiveness of humankind over time. Alternatively this book focuses upon the whaling industry and the mining industry, with brief stopovers for the general way the use of oil has impacted the environment and is changing the Inuit people's way of life. I say this view is narrow, for she focuses primarily by way of visiting various places and interviewing the people there; she digs deep into the histories of singular places and how they have been affected rather than focusing upon the whole. This book is deeper for it does delve into the past, and draws connections between lack of place and connection to nature and rising suicide rates in some places.
This is a beautiful book, poetically written and with the true heart of a Romantic at the center. There is beauty to be found in ruins, and confusion to be found in nostalgia. Too often what we long for is a mixture between what we actually lived and what we imagined. Is that a bad thing? A central focus is the idea that perhaps our nostalgia could be used to better interact with the environment and world around us at large. Is there something in our nature that makes us destructive, or is it the motivations that need to change? Why do we lack an interest in the world around us?
Ultimately few resolutions are reached. Instead, there is simply a message and hope that we will better engage with our own locations and places in the world. Learn the land, learn the animals, and learn to live with it and in it in a different, and non-destructive and greedy way. Instead, take only what you need. Or at least that's what I got out of it.
I'd be curious to hear what others made of it all....more
I'm a sucker for books on 'alternative history' or in this case 'controversial history' as it was called. I enjoy reading the different beliefs that pI'm a sucker for books on 'alternative history' or in this case 'controversial history' as it was called. I enjoy reading the different beliefs that people hold, and honing my ability to detect hyperdiffusionism when it is being postulated in a... not so admirable fashion. I enjoy learning new mythologies, which these books tend to trod rather heavily on, and seeing the beautiful photographs of sites I, at times, have never even heard of before. Often times these books lead me to different cultures or different areas histories. Sometimes, they do none of these things, but they still prove wild reads. This book was not nearly as 'out there' as I expected it to be, but rather touted the Solutrean hypothesis and mixed in with it an ample amount of Hinduism and speculation. It was open about its diffusionist belief system, but rather believed in people arriving from Africa and South America at times than the more typical European diffusion.
The book was interesting, if a bit grasping in some of its ideas. I won't comment much on the beliefs in the second portion of the book and the development of a 'psychic tool-kit'. Such things are pretty much expected in books of this nature, and while any reader might be open-minded at times most authors reach a bit too far. No, the areas where the grasping were largest were primarily focused upon the development of various cultures, the Young Dryas Impact Event, and academia's unwillingness to acknowledge alternative explanations.
Academia is not nearly as close-minded as most authors make it out to be. In my experience, majoring in anthropology, most academics are happy to say they don't know something and to encourage further study. Most will willingly explore options they don't understand, and are open to trying. Yes, some are hard-wired to only believe the accepted facts, but that is true in any field.
This book was a bit too repetitive, and a bit too eager to denigrate 'traditionalists' a.k.a. any accomplished within the field. While the idea of lost cultures is an obvious one, and I am open to the idea of a certain degree of diffusionism and catastrophism, the tone of the book grated on me a bit. The book needed better editing, and could easily have been a more powerful reading experience with around 100 less pages. Oh well. I should have known what to expect with "The Conspiracy of Silence" being part of the title....more
Reading The Super Natural was an incredibly strange experience, and one that I am still not entirely certain what to make of. In this book Jeff KripReading The Super Natural was an incredibly strange experience, and one that I am still not entirely certain what to make of. In this book Jeff Kripal and Whitley Strieber seek to better explain the phenomenon of close encounters with the Other - whether that Other is alien, extraterrestrial, psychological, or something super natural has yet to be fully decided... and ultimately it is a mystery we shall just have to live with until our vocabularies can better encompass all it is that we experience..
The book is a fascinating one, and one very difficult to fully comprehend. The language is dense by its very nature, and the subject one esoteric. I'm not entirely certain where I sit on the phenomenon that Strieber has experienced throughout his life, although ultimately what one makes of Strieber doesn't really matter. The phenomena is experienced by enough people, and over a long enough period of time, to deem itself worthy of better consideration and study. The study being primarily focused in the humanities rather than the scientific is a bold move that I believe is correct. The bulk of what this book rests upon I, personally believe, is correct. This is a modern mythology, and has its analogues throughout all mythologies. Much like Bigfoot, this is worthy of anthropological study at the very least and a more open minded consideration. We do it a disservice when we say it is either a) purely fraudulent, or b) purely scientific.
I'd like to see this book read by more people, and I'd honestly like to see more books take this approach towards the paranormal. I definitely hope to read more on this topic being treated in such a manner, and am now rather intrigued by the rest of the Communion series. Like the early contactee books I read, there's something eerily gnostic between the lines.
This is definitively the best book I've read about Atlantis. There are no extraterrestrials, and Edgar Cayce is largely dealt with as a footnote rathThis is definitively the best book I've read about Atlantis. There are no extraterrestrials, and Edgar Cayce is largely dealt with as a footnote rather than the be-all-end-all source. Bimini Road is only a few paragraphs, while Santorini is given a good number of chapters. The section on pre-Viking transatlantic voyages is incredibly respectful, and explains the reason why such a hypothesis is viewed as controversial rather than "likely" even though overwhelming evidence continues to points towards it being a reality. (Why? Hyperdiffusion theory being leant too much credibility even though pre-Viking voyages happening doesn't require hyperdiffusion to follow. Evidence? Here's looking at you, Kennewick man, sweet potatoes, phoenecian chickens, and any other number of hard evidence towards trade.)
Atlantis, while a tricky business, has a lot of fascinating history and beliefs that back up a kernel of truth existing beneath the layers of allegory and myth. There are many sites that have the possibility of being it, and a long and complex history that makes academics shy away from lending their name to any search for it. Spiritualism, Nazis, catastrophists and our unwillingness to appreciate the fact such patterns exist are just to name a few... Ultimately, however, the real intrigue seems to fall somewhere deep in the Mystery School that Plato himself believed so strongly in: Pythagorean mathematics that mixed mysticism with mathematics and philosophy. Beyond that? A whole new world and possibilities for Atlantis ease their way in.
I am fairly convinced of Mark Adams conclusions, and impressed by the amount of interesting sites discussed in the book and history that I was wholly unaware of. I've a new respect for deep-sea exploration, and a hope that more deep sea archaeology will unearth treasures in my lifetime. I've a new respect for catastrophists, and a deep interest in Tartessos and its eventual discovery. Not to mention Helike.
Wonders await, and the quest is a fine one even without the ancient astronomer theory to make us giggle on our journey....more
Although 400 pages long, this book goes by all too quickly. I believe the longest section in the entire book was four pages, interspersed with heavy iAlthough 400 pages long, this book goes by all too quickly. I believe the longest section in the entire book was four pages, interspersed with heavy illustrations throughout. The illustrations are what propelled this book from a two star book to a three star - they are beautiful, incredibly detailed, and sourced at the back of the book as well as in footnotes at the bottom of each page. When it says an illustrated history, it means an illustrated history. There are probably more images than there is writing in the book. That isn't necessarily a bad thing.
While the book treats each subject very shortly, it does treat a vast array of subjects. Although every section is fleeting, it is more than enough to pique the imagination and make you want more. For a more thorough view of the histories this delves into The Secret History of All Ages is the best bet, but this is a nice (and less daunting) introduction....more
I first approached this book when I saw it gaining traction online. After seeing several references to it, and looking it up here on GoodReads, I deciI first approached this book when I saw it gaining traction online. After seeing several references to it, and looking it up here on GoodReads, I decided it was likely worth a try. In general I do my best to keep abreast of the books being released about subjects I'm interested in, and anthropology is one of my big interests. Add into it that this book is fairly recent, claims to discuss a fair bit about other hominid species, etc. and it seemed like this book would be right up my alley. In some ways that was true, in other ways, not so much...
Previous reviewers have stated that Sapiens is a wonderful book for people who don't really know much about its subject. I'd agree with that statement wholeheartedly. While the book is a decent overview of common Anthropology 101 subjects, anywhere it attempts to go deeper the arguments begin to fall apart. To enjoy this book, I think you have to subscribe wholeheartedly to two concepts: biological determinism, and that hunter-gatherer societies were far superior to anything we humans are doing now. If you disagree on either point, you're in for a bit of a maddening read. The entirely latter 2/3rds of the book seem to be an argument for biological determinism and us eventually reaching the singularity, while the whole book seems to lament humankinds largest mistake - The Agricultural Revolution.
The whole of the book is pretty down on us as a species in general. While, yes, I agree we could do better when it comes to cooperating with the environment rather than subjugating it, there was a distinct lack of perspective in this narrative. Never was there the thought that we could change, or advice as to how to - always it was the old 'humans are terrible' narrative that isn't exactly encouraging. I much prefer the ecophilosophy present in books like The Urban Bestiary and Crow Planet where there is actual advice for how to improve our situation rather than simply saying 'this is terrible.'
Throw in the fact that there are a lot of basic facts the author gets wrong and... I miss the days where A Short History of Nearly Everything was the most popular science book out there. At least Bill Bryson approached the subject with good humor and plain facts rather than pushing a pessimistic agenda upon his readers....more
Hilary "Fox"
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Books:
philosophy
(113)
