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alex_hev's review
adventurous
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
A cool story, that in other hands might be fairly dull and dry, but the author does a great job of spinning an interesting tale. A lot cool information on ancient Egypt as well as old languages and writing systems.
barnesstorming's review
4.0
A fascinating tale set mostly in the 19th century -- but it's not nearly the "race" that the title implies. Or, at least not one with the same sense of tension we get in a "Fast and Furious" film or an Olympic dash. But for fans of language, the evolution thereof, Egyptian history, or even just ancient world history (as the book frequently darts to Greece, Syria, or other countries who had run-ins with Egypt millennia ago), give this one a couple days of your time. You'll be rewarded. Two gems I'll take with me forever: First, when you see "Ye Olde Tavern" or whatnot on old signs, the "ye" used to be pronounced "the" and the Y symbol was just shorthand for engravers and sign-makers (much as early American printmakers would use "s" and "f" interchangeably). And second, I'll bet you didn't know that the words "Hickory Dickory Dock" meant "8, 9, 10" in ancient Celtic -- which makes sense out of what I assumed was nonsense in the phrase before "the mouse ran up the clock."
smzhou's review
4.0
super interesting, with a lot of additional stories to flesh out the context. highly recommend the audiobook, the narrator was really good.
ewormuth's review
4.0
I greatly enjoyed this book. Dolnick writes what could be dry history in a very lively style, using analogies to everyday things in the modern world to help the reader understand the enormity of the task before the men who strove to decipher thousands-of-years-old hieroglyphics. These analogies are often humorous -- Dolnick describes Tutankhamen as "the Millard Fillmore of pharaohs," and compares another pharaoh's mummy to Mr. Burns on The Simpsons. I learned a great deal, about not only hieroglyphics and ancient Egypt but language in general. I'm definitely going to look for other books by Dolnick. Highly recommended.
cpjeanz's review against another edition
4.0
This book was a very interesting read. I'm honestly landing at a 4 here. There were moments that were very good, with a mix of historical detail and relevant examples. But, then there were others where it felt completely undirected and we ended up on a tangent. For the most part it was very good though. I appreciated learning about the history behind the discovery of the Rosetta stone, as well as the efforts to decode it. It's an area I was completely unfamiliar with, and I certainly learned a lot about language in general. I would warn people though, this book has been described as a thriller, with a race between two minds trying to decode the Rosetta Stone. To be frank, in my opinion, you really won't be getting that. You will be getting a good history of the time period, Egypt, hieroglyphs, decoding the discovery, and on language in general. I would recommend this for fans of Egypt, language, or history.
Quick hits:
+ Overall good overview of the history, time period, discovery, and decoding of the Rosetta Stone.
+ Language theory was really interesting and helps the reader understand the scholastic discussion.
+ Pacing was fast and kept me invested.
+/- Billed as a thriller but in reality is just a non-fiction book about the topic. While timelines are parallel, they don't have much to do with each other and really don't have much to do with the actual result.
- Some random tangents which departed from the story.
- The book never tells you what the actual text on the Rosetta Stone is. It's not the point of the book, but it feels missing.
I was a bit mixed on this one. The writing is good, and when it's focused, the story is incredibly interesting. But there are some departures throughout the story, and missing pieces that brought this down. I would still recommend overall, but just go in with the right expectations.
Quick hits:
+ Overall good overview of the history, time period, discovery, and decoding of the Rosetta Stone.
+ Language theory was really interesting and helps the reader understand the scholastic discussion.
+ Pacing was fast and kept me invested.
+/- Billed as a thriller but in reality is just a non-fiction book about the topic. While timelines are parallel, they don't have much to do with each other and really don't have much to do with the actual result.
- Some random tangents which departed from the story.
- The book never tells you what the actual text on the Rosetta Stone is. It's not the point of the book, but it feels missing.
I was a bit mixed on this one. The writing is good, and when it's focused, the story is incredibly interesting. But there are some departures throughout the story, and missing pieces that brought this down. I would still recommend overall, but just go in with the right expectations.
gajeam's review
4.0
A fun book with so, so many analogies. Just how many analogies? Imagine a middle school teacher giving a lesson on similes, metaphors, and analogies. Now imagine that teacher assigns his twenty-student class a five-page essay on the decryption of hieroglyphs that includes as many figures of speech as possible. The summation of all their essays would not even include half the analogies that Dolnick does in "The Writing of the Gods"