This list is curated from 29 mentions and sorted by most mentioned, then by date of most recent mention. The more a book is mentioned, the more likely it's recommended and a favorite!
This list is curated from 29 mentions and sorted by most mentioned, then by date of most recent mention. The more a book is mentioned, the more likely it's recommended and a favorite!
"Sapiens" This book is a masterpiece. Nothing I've ever read has so greatly shifted my perspective on humanity. Listening to the sweeping prose on the origins and evolution of our race on this earth felt like I left my body and floated above the clouds. From there, I watched thousands of years unfold as our ancestors experienced all of the evolving wonders and horrors of what it meant to be a human. Something about this book just made things click for me. How and why we operate and interact the way that we do, the origins of tribalism, religion, and money, and how these things exist in our world today. I find these insights useful in my day to day life actually. They kind of inform many of my decisions, and how I interpret what occurs around me.View all 2 sources
Response to "Are there any books you haven’t mentioned that you feel would make your reading list?"
View all 2 sourcesIt seems that the author has his own ideas about certain things like capitalism and socialism and these. I guess they're complex things to describe anyway. The bias of the author to me is clear in there, at least. And that sort of mudded the waters. But regardless, I really really enjoyed this book.View source
I think that's a really great book, there's so many interesting things. There's not many times I read a book were I've come out with 20 new ideas I hadn't thought about before and that book made me think like that.View source
Sapiens offers a good overview of broad trends that have shaped the human civilization from prehistoric to modern times, but suffers from inconsistent assumptions about its target audience and, due to its scope, an abundance of high-level statements that don’t connect. My chief criticism of the book is that it does seem to address a consistent audience. One minute the book discusses and explains a broad trend (e.g. the empire, or capitalism) and then abruptly dives into very specific examples from history to support its statements (e.g. a briefly alluded to specific battle during the expansion of the British empire). The problem is that as an ordinarily-educated person, I am familiar with the basic ideas such as capitalism so these sections bore me, but I am not at all familiar with the details of specific conflicts or related circumstances. As such, I spent the majority of the book either bored, or confused and overwhelmed with information that was seemingly assumed. Overall, the book often felt as a work of a historian written for other historians, selling and supporting certain historical interpretations that the author believes to be true. Not an attempt to teach the general audience about history. I enjoyed the first part of the book dealing with prehistoric times - these chapters were fun to read, perhaps partly due to my relative lack of knowledge of this era. From there, my enjoyment of this book diminished monotonically until the end, which suddenly features several hours of philosophical musings about the point of life and happiness. If you’re looking to get a basic idea about some broad strokes of our history, you might enjoy the first parts of this book. If you’re, like me, trying to get a better and more concrete sense of what life was like in different times of our history, this book never spends enough time and depth to paint and communicate a coherent picture and you will end up disappointed. 3/5View source
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in a fun, engaging look at early human history.View source
