Posted by
Jet
Book Review (View All)

Guns, Germs, and Steel

Saturday, March 8, 2008 2:22 PM
Rating (not bad)
Notes
This book took me forever to finish. It started out great (hence the not bad rating), and I thought I was going to love it after the first 50 or so pages. After the first 150, it was still pretty good. But after that, almost nothing new was said for the next 600 pages. He just repeated, and repeated, and repeated the same stuff he'd discussed earlier in the book. It was incredibly slow going, I don't know how people could enjoy the second half of this book. I desperately need a page turner as my next book, just as a pick me up so I don't think reading blows anymore... The book would have been excellent if it was 400 or so pages shorter and thus had not repeated itself so much

Comments (4)

[ Comment ]
1. Posted by
Kevin
"I desperately need a page turner as my next book, just as a pick me up so I don't think reading blows anymore"

Hahaha...you could probably get some suggestions from Lewen. :)
3/8/2008 3:06 PM
 
2. Posted by
Val
What's more sad to me is that you'll probably never read "1491".  ;)

And I don't recommend reading war and Peace.  It's just too long, despite how much I like it.... slogging past the 600 page mark and only 500 to go!  I feel your pain on length, no matter how good it is.  I keep reading shorter books in between in the hopes it'll make it less long and it doesn't work. :(
3/8/2008 4:49 PM
 
3. Posted by
Lewen
I loved War and Peace!  The length really gives you time to know the characters.  I tend to like longer books, though (as long as they're good).  Another long book I liked was Romance of the Three Kingdoms (yet another historical epic, and it's about 700 pages longer than Tolstoy's book, at least with the versions I read, 1500 pgs vs. 2200 pgs).  Make sure you buy a good translation though, if you decide to go for it. ;-)
3/8/2008 6:00 PM
 
4. Posted by
Val
Billy is totally addicted to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.  And I definitely like long ... and I love the characters and Tolstoy's writing... and I'm not scared of "long", I've read Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, the Bible, and my fav, David Copperfield. 

but I don't think I read as fast as you... it feels like it's taking forever for some reason, as much as I like it.  Tolstoy's characters really make me laugh, especially Pierre.  I love Pierre.
3/9/2008 4:50 AM