Don't Know Much About Mythology: Everything You Need To Know About The Greatest Stories In Human History But Never Learned (2006) - Plot & Excerpts
I listened to this audio because I thought that it would be a good one for my boyfriend and I try listen to together on a long car trip, since in college he studied ancient Greece and Rome. He, however didn't like it. I will agree with him that the Introduction was overly long and explained things a bit too much about how the book was structured and all, but he didn't have the stamina to get past that to the meat of the book. Which he likely still wouldn't have liked, but I enjoyed immensely.I really love knowing tons of useless facts, and a big-picture overview of a topic is a great way to know a little bit about a lot of things. For the Greece and Rome section, understandably the longest, it was mostly a review, as well as the Middle Eastern myths related to the Old Testament, but pretty much everything else was all new, although with some bits I did already know about like Gilgamesh in the Mesopotamian section, and the story of Siegfried (naturally!) in the Norse section (although to my dismay, he didn't call him Siegfried, because it was from the Norse, not German, point of view, but Sigfrud was close enough.) It was neat to see certain trends and stories repeat themselves across different cultures and great distances, like a flood myth which almost every culture has, and trickster gods which occur across the Pacific from China to North America to New Zealand. I could have used a little less of the straight-up history, as I didn't think things like that Australia was colonized to become Britain's biggest penal colony, actually had anything to do with the Aboriginal myths, and the book was already chock-a-block full of facts that I was having trouble retaining.That said, I did very much enjoy it, and I think I will check out another Don't Know Much About book. The narration was just fine, although I am baffled as to why the narrator was British, yet the book was written from a distinctly American point of view, using American cultural reference points, occasional American slang, and a Brit didn't add anything to the narration. I liked that the "Mythic voices" sidebars were narrated by a different narrator, as it helped keep things straight. Neither lists of gods and goddesses, nor timelines, translate terrifically well to audio, but they weren't bad as presented here. Plus I often will skim those in books (if not outright skip) and I probably shouldn't, so it's kind of nice that in an audio you can't easily skim those parts. Thoroughly diverting.
Continuing my efforts to read more non-fiction this year, I selected Kenneth Davis' "Don't Know Much About Mythology" as my next big listen. And boy was it a BIG listen. This audio took me forever to finish because it was so packed full of information. There were parts that didn't translate well into audio, for example the timelines at the beginning of each section. But overall is was a great listen if not a bit long. Audio listeners may want to checkout the abridged version since the print book is over 500 pages which makes for an extremely long audio.The book is broken up into regions of the world and Davis provides a brief history in a timeline format for each region. He then goes on to talk a bit about the history in a little more detail, often covering religion and political structure and any other societal factors that may have played a role in that regions mythology. Then Davis goes into detail about the major deities and some of the major myths for the region. He continuously links new Gods to other Gods in other regions and often points out similarities between Deities from region to region. I found it most interesting how societies often borrowed stories from other civilizations and how as religion changed, new religions often incorporated old myth into the new religion to make the new religion more acceptable for the population. Throughout the book Davis does a good job of giving an overview of world mythology. Some parts were pretty familiar to me but other parts were completely new and totally enlightening. I learned so many new fun facts from listening to this book and I was able to further my knowledge of myths that I truly thought I knew already. Toward the end, some areas felt a bit weak and Davis seems to go deeply into religion more towards the end than he did in areas like the Greeks and Romans, but he ties it all back together in the end. Overall, this is a good overview for people wanting to learn a little about many different myths from all over the world. I'm interested in reading some of his other works since these "Don't Know Much" books seem to provide a good introduction to areas of study that one might be interested in learning more about without having to take a class or read a text book.
What do You think about Don't Know Much About Mythology: Everything You Need To Know About The Greatest Stories In Human History But Never Learned (2006)?
This book is an intersting blend of history and mythology--and really does prove that most of us don't know much about either! Each section of the book starts with a timeline of events for the part of the world being discussed (ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Americas, Pacific islands, and more) and then follows with information on the myths of each in a question-and-answer format, including a "who's who" of gods and goddesses for each region. Sprinkled throughout each section are "mythic voices", brief segments from sources as varied as the Bible, Egypt's Book of the Dead, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung that serve to renforce the primary text. Overall a fascinating book, it really is a bit too much to read in a short period of time. We listened to the audio version while driving in the car--it was well read by John Lee, though at times his British accent and slightly different pronunciations got to be a bit distracting--over about three months. Definitely recommended, though it is not for young children, as quite a bit of awkward explanations would be needed. Ancient myths are not at all G-rated!
—Becky
Wow, this book is long. I mean, it's interesting, but there's so much information covering so vast a scope that reading it is like running a marathon. Each section covers a geographical region such as Africa or Western Europe, with the countries boasting the most well-documented mythologies getting the most treatment, such as Egypt, India, and Greece/Rome. Each section includes a timeline, a "who's who" of gods and goddesses, relevant quotes, and answers to common questions like "was there really a Trojan War?" Though many comparisons are made, there is no separate section for Judeo-Christian mythology, having covered it in depth in his other book, Don't Know Much About the Bible. Davis holds nothing back, describing a representative sample of each culture's myths in (often hilarious) detail. For example, I was surprised (and kind of disgusted) by how many creation myths involved excrement and other bodily fluids of the gods, and laughed at the tales of the trickster god's magical penis. The little asides and pop culture references were also often amusing. Though admittedly not meant to be a thorough compendium of mythology (and I would have loved for the "New World" section to have been much longer), it is certainly an excellent start. The writing is very accessible and has made me want to read more of the original myths, particularly the Norse and Egyptian tales. A word of warning, though: once you read the section on Egypt, you will never see the Washington Monument the same way ever again.
—melydia
This book discusses the mythology of the key ancient civilizations: Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Greek, Roman, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, and South, Central, and North American. I found this book quite interesting and would recommend it to anyone who is interested in ancient religions, especially those people who are curious about the the commonalities between major ancient religions. For example, nearly Every ancient civilization has a Flood narrative eerily (or not so much) similar to the biblical story of Noah; additionally, many, many ancient civilizations worshiped characters with similarities to Jesus (born of a virgin, performed miracles, died for our sins, resurrected, etc., etc.).
—Erik
