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3.3 AVERAGE
3.3 AVERAGE
I skipped about half of this book ... any “sport” or “game” that appeared to be harmful to animals immediately got skipped - and it was a good size portion of the book unfortunately. I still gave the book a 3 Star due to the interesting tidbits provided about other games/sports. Some of my favorites were aerial golf, balloon jumping, dwile flonking, last couple in hell, forgotten Olympic events, pedestrianism, and phosphorescent golf.
I really enjoyed it. Learning about history and crazy sports
(Content warning for acts in this book.)
This isn't a history book, to my disappointment. It's really only meant to be a general public/conversation starter as evident in the short stories and in the select bibliography. There were certainly a few interesting stories/sports in the book, and some I had already known about, such as the naumachiae, which were essentially Roman arena sea battles within the city; and walking-stick fighting (which would be the predecessor of single-stick fighting).
Spoiler
animal crueltyThis isn't a history book, to my disappointment. It's really only meant to be a general public/conversation starter as evident in the short stories and in the select bibliography. There were certainly a few interesting stories/sports in the book, and some I had already known about, such as the naumachiae, which were essentially Roman arena sea battles within the city; and walking-stick fighting (which would be the predecessor of single-stick fighting).
Fun book to pick up and flip through, though I want to read some other books now and let this one sit for a bit.
I enjoyed this book. The sports were very interesting. But many were very cruel to animals, and the author describes the sport in pretty graphic detail, so that was a bit off putting. However, I believe that we can not pick and choose facts about history and this was the first time I have heard about many of these games/sports.
funny
informative
medium-paced
On the one hand fascinating, and I would certainly love to do more research into the topic, but at times surprisingly dense. I wonder if it would have been a better read if written narratively rather than as a sort of encyclopedia. Worth a browse, though.
funny
informative
lighthearted
sad
fast-paced
While I enjoyed the theme and much of the contents of the book, the fact that so many medieval games involve torturously killing animals made a fair portion off putting.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Violence, Injury/Injury detail
Whilst the author does talk in the introduction about how the early idea of sport was quite linked to hunting, most of the sports in this book are some form of animal torture/murder. The sections are often quite brief as well, so I didn't always feel like I got the information I wanted.
I think my favourite sports, the ones I'd like to do, from those described were flyting and jingling.
I think my favourite sports, the ones I'd like to do, from those described were flyting and jingling.
