A Lazy Reader's Review of "Salt: A World History" by Mark Kurlansky

Synopsis

    In his fifth nonfiction, Mark Kurlansky turns his attention to a common household item with a long and intriguing history: salt. The only rock we eat, salt has shaped civilization from the very beginning, and its story is a glittering, often surprising part of the history of humankind. A substance so valuable it served as currency, salt has influenced the establishment of trade routs and cities, provoked and financed wars, secured empires, and inspired revolutions.

Review

    This is probably the first history book that I've read in a while. As someone with a history degree, I didn't have a lot of opportunities to read for pleasure during my undergrad because most of my time was taken up with reading material for my classes. Don't get me wrong, the material that I was reading was, for the most part enjoyable, but it would often leave me feeling very depleted and tired, so I wouldn't read much afterward. But, now that I've finished my degree and am on my gap year, I have a lot more free time to read books about topics that aren't tied to a class. I really like to learn about super niche topics in history and when I came across this book on Goodreads, I was sold. I mean, come on. It's a book about the history of salt, how much more niche can you get? I love when world history is told through a very specific lense.

    I really like how Kurlansky structured his book. Often I find that when discussing niche topics, authors tend to get caught up in the details and neglect to pay any mind to the flow of their book. Each chapter had a clear theme and topic and it had a nice flow of time. What I mean by a "nice flow of time" is that there is a clear passing of time as the book goes on. So we go from the Roman Empire, to the Chinese dynasties, European kingdoms, across the ocean to the Aztecs, and even up to the American Revolution and forward. There was never a time where I was confused about where in time the information was taking place.

    Now, being the person I am, I tend to know a lot of things about very specific topics. So, much of the information in this book were thing that I already knew. But, that isn't to say that there weren't any pieces of information that I didn't know. However, those few pieces were verrryyy specific. But still interesting!

    Overall, I enjoyed this book quite a bit and recommend this for anyone that wants to take a dip in niche topics.

    I always struggle with rating non-fiction. I find that I have a hard time gauging my enjoyment of a book that only deals in facts. It's not like non-fiction where I develop my rating through the writing and prose, the characters, the plot, etc. Non-fiction doesn't really have that, not in the same way. I think my struggle also stems from the fact that I just don't read enough non-fiction to come up with a proper rating system. I think I'll give this book a solid four stars simply because I did enjoy my time reading this book, I enjoyed the writing, and I thought the structure and information was well-done and interesting.

Nov. 14, 2024 – Nov. 16, 2024

★★★★☆