Has anyone read

[sangria]

Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond?

My H has been raving about this book and how it lays out with extreme clarity reasons for a lot of the whys in human society.

I'm hesitant because H has a track record for recommending some seriously boring, tedious reading. 

Reviews?

[downtoearth]

I read about 200 pages. It was ok, had a lot of history, but I didn't finish it or love it like my coworker who recommended it.

[sangria]

Dec 30, 2015 17:51:52 GMT -5 downtoearth said:

I read about 200 pages. It was ok, had a lot of history, but I didn't finish it or love it like my coworker who recommended it.

Was it tough reading? Like tough to digest?

[ChillyMcFreeze]

No, but I have read Collapse by him, and I loved it. His writing style is extremely engaging for nonfiction. Guns, Germs, and Steel is definitely on my list.

[downtoearth]

Dec 30, 2015 17:52:51 GMT -5 sangria said:

Dec 30, 2015 17:51:52 GMT -5 downtoearth said:

I read about 200 pages. It was ok, had a lot of history, but I didn't finish it or love it like my coworker who recommended it.

Was it tough reading? Like tough to digest?

No, it was laid out pretty well, I just felt like it was repeating itself a lot. Honestly, my coworker talked about that book for like two months and I kept up and hadn't ever finished. If you own it, it's worth it to start reading.

[asdfjkl]

I read it a really long time ago.  I remember being like, "Yeah.  That makes sense."

[sporky]

I read it years ago so my memory is slightly foggy on specifics, but I do remember liking it a lot. I tend to find Diamond pretty engaging and don't feel like it's overly technical or dry.

[fernweh]

It was required reading in one of my college classes. For that reason alone I found it extremely boring and tedious. I don't think it would have been my cup of tea anyway.

[mrsdewinter]

I read it years ago and I didn't think it was boring. It's pretty controversial in the social sciences. One criticism is that it paints colonialism, slavery, etc as accidents of geography instead of products of human agency and deliberate political choices.