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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
informative
slow-paced
Unique in its delivery, this book was an interesting read. Following the lives of some of most preeminent manuscript collectors through history, Christopher de Hamel brings to life these historical characters and the love of manuscripts that they all shared. The content is intriguing if a little wordy and messy in formatting. I enjoyed reading about the love of old books from those who made it their lives to collect as you really do feel, to a lesser extent, the reverence for the (hand)written word. The book was probably not worth the high cost of the hardcover but it was a gift so I cannot complain.
adventurous
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
While this book, as advertised, contains interesting descriptions of manuscripts and those who collected them, I found that the book was more framed in a biographical sense on the authors journey to find and visit the remnants of these collections. While this was undoubtedly personally important for Hamel, I do not know him or his scholarship well enough to care about that.
Also, this book may lend itself better to a non-audio format. So, that is a contributing factor in my DNF.
Also, this book may lend itself better to a non-audio format. So, that is a contributing factor in my DNF.
informative
medium-paced
informative
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
This book was very pretty and just a cool diversion into a bunch of people's lives and how they intersected with the books they collected.
Also it wasn't until the chapter on David Oppenheim that I realized that most of the collectors...weren't collecting to read and that threw me for a loop. It's not that I know a ton about manuscript culture, but I do have a rather different relationship to them than the average person and it took de Hamel pointing out that the rabbis were different for me to realize that I had completely wrong assumptions about everyone else (except Anselm, yes).
It was a really fun book and my major critique, unsurprisingly, is that he brings up neurodivergence and mental illness to explain problematic character traits when, I promise you, the guy who forgot to change out of his bright green slippers when putting on a tailcoat and hated traveling and fell asleep with the candle burning is not neurotypical, my dude. That could have been handled way better.
Also it wasn't until the chapter on David Oppenheim that I realized that most of the collectors...weren't collecting to read and that threw me for a loop. It's not that I know a ton about manuscript culture, but I do have a rather different relationship to them than the average person and it took de Hamel pointing out that the rabbis were different for me to realize that I had completely wrong assumptions about everyone else (except Anselm, yes).
It was a really fun book and my major critique, unsurprisingly, is that he brings up neurodivergence and mental illness to explain problematic character traits when, I promise you, the guy who forgot to change out of his bright green slippers when putting on a tailcoat and hated traveling and fell asleep with the candle burning is not neurotypical, my dude. That could have been handled way better.
informative
slow-paced