We have moved up the numbers considerably for my next book for the challenge which is A History of World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor. It’s a book based on the original radio series which features objects owned by the British Museum – I did catch a few of these when they were first broadcast and thought that I would like to have read about the objects. I suspected that I must have bought this book new, at some point, but then discovered a sticky label on the back cover showing that I bought it from The Children’s Society charity shop somewhere for the amazingly reasonable price of 99 pence.
This book is designed to be read in small instalments, either as one object a day or in the twenty sections into which the author groups the objects. Because of the nature of this challenge, and the fact that I am trying to read the books in one month, I read this book more quickly than I would have liked. I certainly enjoyed it, and there was some advantage in seeing things in a wider scope, but I think that one day I shall go back and read it over a longer period of time, or maybe track down the audio version to do the same.
The objects start at the beginning of recorded history and continue until the present day. This means that we are over halfway through the book before we get to the Norman Conquest era. I don’t know a lot about prehistoric, ancient and classical history but the book doesn’t assume that the reader will have that knowledge and the objects which are chosen are fascinating to read about.
The book moves in chronological order and the objects chosen show the shape of history and nations. They have been chosen from many nations, religions and cultures and vary in size and function. There are paintings, weapons, tools, gadgets, sculptures, musical instruments and much more. They come from all the continents and part of the discussion in the book is about how these objects have been reinterpreted over the years and what might happen to them now.
This is a truly wonderful book and gave me lots to think about and subjects to read about more deeply. Each object has three or four pages and a line drawing to illustrate it. There are some colour photographs inserted to show off objects which need more attention. Although it is a thick book it is well laid out and easy to read. I shall shelve this with my books of world history and promise to revisit it in the future.
Anne Is Reading 