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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
A masterpiece by the "Father of History". Not only does Herodotus tell the story of the amazing victory by the Greek city states over the Persian empire, but he also details the problems that those same city states had cooperating with each other in that conflict. And, as a bonus, Herodotus also examined the histories and cultures of the major powers in the Ancient World.
adventurous
funny
informative
slow-paced
A good translation, I’d suspect.
Mostly read his descriptions of foreign lands. Flying snakes in Arabia? A whole chapter on the length of the Nile? Amazing.
Mostly read his descriptions of foreign lands. Flying snakes in Arabia? A whole chapter on the length of the Nile? Amazing.
How do you review a book which is nearly 2500 years old?
I really didn’t expect to enjoy this as much as I did. I went into this expecting something a bit dry and laborious, and although it wasn’t always a page turner I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it.
It was fascinating to read descriptions of places and peoples from a couple of thousand years ago written by someone who was actually there at the time. Similarly, for the stories of the Greco-Persian war, hearing it only second or third hand is still pretty awesome.
What surprised me the most was how grounded most of the stories were, with there being relatively few fantastical elements. When people’s recollections of stories started to get creative, Herodotus tended to treat them with skepticism.
The individual books vary in pace and focus, so depending on what you’re finding interesting each book may vary in enjoyment. Book 2 was where I started to get engaged, and Book 7 and 8 were the real gripping parts.
Overall, if you’re interested in history or this part of the world I’d definitely recommend reading these books, if nothing else it’s quite special to read a primary source of history that is so approachable.
I really didn’t expect to enjoy this as much as I did. I went into this expecting something a bit dry and laborious, and although it wasn’t always a page turner I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it.
It was fascinating to read descriptions of places and peoples from a couple of thousand years ago written by someone who was actually there at the time. Similarly, for the stories of the Greco-Persian war, hearing it only second or third hand is still pretty awesome.
What surprised me the most was how grounded most of the stories were, with there being relatively few fantastical elements. When people’s recollections of stories started to get creative, Herodotus tended to treat them with skepticism.
The individual books vary in pace and focus, so depending on what you’re finding interesting each book may vary in enjoyment. Book 2 was where I started to get engaged, and Book 7 and 8 were the real gripping parts.
Overall, if you’re interested in history or this part of the world I’d definitely recommend reading these books, if nothing else it’s quite special to read a primary source of history that is so approachable.
adventurous
challenging
informative
slow-paced
adventurous
inspiring
slow-paced
informative
slow-paced
Buddy reads are tough to organize, but we should try again some time.
Pretty good for the first history book ever. I was expecting a much less scientific Thucydides, but instead got a truly interesting and entertaining work of anthropology. I was even engrossed by the time we finally get to Thermopylae, which is surprising given how much H is given to tangents and describing opposite viewpoints.
One of the few entertaining HUM110 books I’ve read so far, what was the deal with that horse?