A review by paperprivateer
Cabinet of Curiosities: A Historical Tour of the Unbelievable, the Unsettling, and the Bizarre by Aaron Mahnke, Harry Marks

informative medium-paced

2.5

 

I haven’t listened to the podcast, so I approached this book with no expectations or awareness of who the writer was. 

 

I enjoyed the tidbits in general. I like small, interesting tidbits that you might share as a “did you know” quick fact or might spark further research. I liked the assortment of information and the span of topics. I liked the quick, digestible approach to information and the humor imbedded in even some more grisly stories. 

 

However, this isn’t a book I’d probably use as a “did you know” because I wasn’t sure how much I could trust the information. Wikipedia was the primary source for a lot of the book, which… is an interesting choice. Even school children know not to use Wikipedia for a main source without doing more research.  Some of the information felt more like urban legends than verified information, and I didn’t feel like having to research every page to see if the information was verifiable or not. Some items also seemed like a little bit of a stretch, almost more like butterfly effect conclusions rather than verifiable, historically agreed on reasons why something happened in history. 

 

Overall it was a fun book, but I wouldn’t quote any of the information in it or consider it trustworthy even if it was interesting.