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alexandriam_rose's review against another edition
3.0
mostly an interesting look a niche part of history
karathagan's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
3.75
Non-fiction #24 of 2023! One more to go. I have read several Kurlansky books - I loved Paper and enjoyed Cod, and have a couple others on my list.
First thing I noticed about this book is how there is some information reused from Cod. As I looked through titles of his other books, I realize several overlap. For instance, Salt was hugely important to the preservation fo food and enormous segments of the global population relied on salted fish - also huge in Cod. Same for flash freezing and the Birdseye story. He has other books about fishing and a biography of Birdseye.
Second thing I kept noticing is that there were a lot of disarticulated lists of facts. Disjointed spoutings of unconnected subjects and events with no segues. Still overall very interesting, with a lot of varied impacts that I would not have expected in a study of salt. Politics and state formation, geography and geological formations, technology, drilling, painting, smuggling, transport, poetry, etc.. Very thorough and made me want to be informed on trade, laws, and history of commodities. Good book, will read more from author.
First thing I noticed about this book is how there is some information reused from Cod. As I looked through titles of his other books, I realize several overlap. For instance, Salt was hugely important to the preservation fo food and enormous segments of the global population relied on salted fish - also huge in Cod. Same for flash freezing and the Birdseye story. He has other books about fishing and a biography of Birdseye.
Second thing I kept noticing is that there were a lot of disarticulated lists of facts. Disjointed spoutings of unconnected subjects and events with no segues. Still overall very interesting, with a lot of varied impacts that I would not have expected in a study of salt. Politics and state formation, geography and geological formations, technology, drilling, painting, smuggling, transport, poetry, etc.. Very thorough and made me want to be informed on trade, laws, and history of commodities. Good book, will read more from author.
duvyna's review against another edition
3.0
Someone actually wrote a whole book about Salt, as in the mineral, and it was actually pretty good. Mark Kurlansky takes us through the history of salt and humans love of it. The language was easy and the story telling was not boring. There was a little bit rambling here and there but overall it was well done and made reading about salt interesting. For a topic that we usually don’t dwell on it was very educational and worth the read.
skampa's review
2.5
The information was good and the recipes were fun. The structure was all over the place; I think it went chronologically.
It would have been stronger if the author had defined which salt he was referring to in the beginning: he sort of lumps all salts together until somewhere in the middle when he finally defines salt.
Also it ends very abruptly, is there no conclusion?
It would have been stronger if the author had defined which salt he was referring to in the beginning: he sort of lumps all salts together until somewhere in the middle when he finally defines salt.
Also it ends very abruptly, is there no conclusion?
booksnooksandcooks's review against another edition
3.0
It’s too much salt, okay. That was just so much info about salt.
mark_kivimaki's review against another edition
informative
fast-paced
3.25
it's fine. there's a lot of really interesting information in here but it feels just so disorganized, even within the chapters. maybe these sorts of pop history books aren't for me, but it's difficult to parse what argument or takeaway this book is trying to create.
acrickettofillthesilence's review against another edition
2.0
You know you're a writing tutor when you fantasize about conversing with the author over his organization strategies.No, seriously. I had an entire dialog in my head about it. How did you organize this book? Does each section have a main concept or idea? Does every chapter and/or paragraph help move towards this idea? Can you find any that don't? Let's read through some of these paragraphs together and you can tell me where you think something might be tangential to the main idea.
This book meanders. It shares an interesting perspective on history based on one trading commodity, but sections, paragraphs, and even sentences within paragraphs will go off on a somewhat related topic and then return to the original topic as though it hadn't even left. One memorable example of this: I read a paragraph about the Egyptians making salt that, in the middle, incorporated a sentence about their trade with the Phoenicians, and then the next sentences finished the explanation salt making.
Some might like their nonfiction to take the scenic route to every idea; I discovered through this book that I am not one of those people.
This book meanders. It shares an interesting perspective on history based on one trading commodity, but sections, paragraphs, and even sentences within paragraphs will go off on a somewhat related topic and then return to the original topic as though it hadn't even left. One memorable example of this: I read a paragraph about the Egyptians making salt that, in the middle, incorporated a sentence about their trade with the Phoenicians, and then the next sentences finished the explanation salt making.
Some might like their nonfiction to take the scenic route to every idea; I discovered through this book that I am not one of those people.
hirvimaki's review against another edition
4.0
A fascinating look at how salt has shaped our world. Kurlansky has a gift for storytelling.