Start this book on the inside cover. Do not skip pages--you might miss the note about vegetables through time in the fine print, for example. Don't skip to the "main" book, read all the information pages first.
The first chapter and a half I really enjoyed. The Greek logic was quite amusing, as is the post/pre-socratatics (there was nothing in between except maybe Socrates and he'd admit he was mythical if you asked). About the time he started going through operas it became a bit tedious. He never quite got back on stride--there continued to be amusing parts, but it was much rougher. The answers to rhetorical questions in poetry made me grin, but it was near Shakespeare which was not amusing enough for the inconvenience of reading/length of the section. He needed to tighten up the later chapters to bring the humor to the forefront, then add another chapter to keep the length.
Not a bad book, just not as amusing as I had hoped after the introductory pages & first chapter. Not, unfortunately, that unusual for this type book--some good parts and the rest really uneven.
The first chapter and a half I really enjoyed. The Greek logic was quite amusing, as is the post/pre-socratatics (there was nothing in between except maybe Socrates and he'd admit he was mythical if you asked). About the time he started going through operas it became a bit tedious. He never quite got back on stride--there continued to be amusing parts, but it was much rougher. The answers to rhetorical questions in poetry made me grin, but it was near Shakespeare which was not amusing enough for the inconvenience of reading/length of the section. He needed to tighten up the later chapters to bring the humor to the forefront, then add another chapter to keep the length.
Not a bad book, just not as amusing as I had hoped after the introductory pages & first chapter. Not, unfortunately, that unusual for this type book--some good parts and the rest really uneven.
