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A review by cpjeanz
The Writing of the Gods: The Race to Decode the Rosetta Stone by Edward Dolnick
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.