Un-Hiatus Post

[justice_turtle]

Um, I'm not dead! It's just that The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem Van Loon is the next book up, and it's 482 pages of nonfiction history from ninety years ago. So I keep having to google things to find out whether Mr van Loon is wrong, or whether my own inadequate history education is wrong, or whether we're both right but the generation gap makes us contradict each other.

It's very exciting, really: it's a time-capsule of a history book! From a year when four different important expeditions that were to change our knowledge of prehistory hadn't come back yet. :D It's just amazingly slow, because I do most of my book-reviewing on the bus, sans Internet.

So. I have about half a dozen readers subscribed here, and maybe some lurkers: please to tell me in comments, would you rather I post the first quarter of the liveblog now and add sections as I go along, or wait till I finish liveblogging the whole book (or get exhausted and decide not to finish it?¹)

1: I would really like to finish it, because the next two on the list are Dr Doolittle and the other entry by that master of what on earth did I just read, Charles Boardman Hawes. And it would be sad to partially-liveblog so many books in a row.

Comments

[melannen]

I would be okay with getting it in installments; it sounds *fascinating*... but also like it will be a long enough liveblog that it would go well in shorter chunks.

[justice_turtle]

Yup, good point. I'll be posting the first section, then. :D

[supranee]

installments sound like a great idea for readers, because 482 pages of history would seem like it needs to be broken down in sections anyway. however, isn't it best to do what's easier for you?

also, have you read Guns, Germs, and Steel? i found that history book to be provide some really good theories.

[justice_turtle]

I haven't read Guns, Germs, and Steel yet! It's on my reading list - one of my professors recommended it a couple of years ago.

I'm starting to think breaking this liveblog down in sections would be easier for everyone, including me; it just wasn't something I'd planned for, so it's taken me a while to adjust to the idea. ;P

Thanks for commenting (and welcome to the comm)! :D