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A review by carolineabeachum
The Greatest Invention: A History of the World in Nine Mysterious Scripts by Silvia Ferrara
3.0
This title was very intriguing for me- the greatest invention being writing? Let's dive in. Overall it was worth the read, but fell flat in several areas.
What I liked:
- I enjoyed reading about the early civilizations of Mesoamerica, Egypt, and China, I teach these in my World History class and liked being able to dive deeper into the writing systems. Particularly interesting to hear about how they all invented their writing system independent of each other.
-The author used a plethora of images- it was interesting to see the artifacts she was discussing throughly in the book.
What I didn't:
-The author's writing style was very.. interesting. I gave a little grace because the book was not originally written in English. But the more I read, the more I was convinced that the author intended to write in less of an academic style and more of a literary/narrative style. It was really just distracting more than anything else.
-I also struggled with the organization of this book. In the first chapters it seemed clear how the book would be laid out- the author was going to take us in depth to several different early civilizations and their "invention" of writing. But as she did she would jump around topically and make references that were not clearly laid out. Overall it was very disorganized.
What I liked:
- I enjoyed reading about the early civilizations of Mesoamerica, Egypt, and China, I teach these in my World History class and liked being able to dive deeper into the writing systems. Particularly interesting to hear about how they all invented their writing system independent of each other.
-The author used a plethora of images- it was interesting to see the artifacts she was discussing throughly in the book.
What I didn't:
-The author's writing style was very.. interesting. I gave a little grace because the book was not originally written in English. But the more I read, the more I was convinced that the author intended to write in less of an academic style and more of a literary/narrative style. It was really just distracting more than anything else.
-I also struggled with the organization of this book. In the first chapters it seemed clear how the book would be laid out- the author was going to take us in depth to several different early civilizations and their "invention" of writing. But as she did she would jump around topically and make references that were not clearly laid out. Overall it was very disorganized.