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Title: Don't Know Much About Mythology: Everything You Need to Know About the Greatest Stories in Human History but Never Learned
ISBN: 0060932570
Author:
Kenneth C. Davis
Publicate Date: 2006-08-01
Publish: 2006-08-01
List Price: $14.95
Average Customer Rating: 3.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $4.48
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $3.00
Amazon Merchant Price: $10.92
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Quick and entertaining and readable intro to mythology
As an ex-physics geek, I didn't have any appreciation for the required courses I had to take as a high-school/college student. My knowledge of mythology was limited to the Mummy movies, Thor comic books, and Harryhausen stop-motion Greek mythology movies. Today I have a much greater appreciation of history, and part of understanding history includes cultures and their associated mythologies. This book is a great introduction to some of the myths, including creation myths, gods/goddesses, and their associated stories. It's a quick read, and while you won't be able to teach college level courses after reading this book, you have some understanding of other people's beliefs, which can be important in this increasingly integrated world, where some of the people you work with and/or for may be from a culture different than yours.
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2: A great launching pad
Notice: This book is not intended as a know-all survey of world mythology. As you may imagine, the effort to contain all that information within a single volume would be vain and, let's admit, rather stupid. "Don't Know Much About Mythology," like Kenneth C. Davis's other efforts, is meant to introduce you to the subject, to pique your interest (for those who ARE interested in reading further, Davis supplies a wonderful bibliography at the end, complete with his opinions upon the various texts that influenced this book).
All that aside--this is a wonderful introduction into the realm of mythology. Davis tackles the subject from a Western viewpoint--he admits it up front--but treats each and every region with the utmost respect that it deserves. A few regions get the editorial shaft--I would have loved to have more info on the indiginous mythology of Australia--but that's to be expected; after all, one can only put so much info into a single book. The sections on Egypt and Greek mythology, as you may expect, get quite a bit of room; this is a bit unfair, but again, isn't surprising. What IS interesting--and what makes this book a vital asset to any amateur study of mythology--is that Davis takes a look at the way each region's mythology interacts with another's; he relates a lot of it to Christian/Jewish/Islamic mythology (this being a product of his Western viewpoint), but also relates the myths to each other. Combined with Davis's relaxed, sometimes witty prose, and you've got a book that is informative AND fun. It's a great starting point for a study of mythology; or, if you just want a cursory overview of the subject, it makes for a wonderful read.
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3: a mistake
In the Gift of the Nile chapter, the section titled Did pharaoh inspire Moses to worship one god? the author mistakenly claims that pharaoh orders the killing of all firstborn Israelites. See Exodus 1:15-22; 11:1-6; 13:15. Instead he orders the killing of all boys being born. It is god who kills the firstborn Egyptians.
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4: Sufficient knowledge for most
This book is a good value for its cost. It covers myths from all parts of the world and It is good both for reading from cover to cover and for infrequent browsing. In about 500 pages, myths are told only in a concise manner, and are discussed briefly from several aspects by asking questions and providing some more details within answers. It gives general information about the time period and place the myths are born, main characters and some events. All in all it is enough knowledge for most people and considering its cost it is a good value for the money paid.
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5: Audio version
This is honestly the worst audio book I have ever bought. Kenneth Davis has written some fantastic books, unfortunately this is not one of them. I can't even sell this as used. I could not bring myself to do something that bad to another human. Kenneths other books are funny, interesting, and informative. This book would have been better at all three if it had been a random collection of words.
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