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Adina (notifications back, log out, clear cache) 's Reviews > Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
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It is again unpopular opinion time! It seems it becomes a rule for me not to enjoy a book that everyone seems to love. Well, someone has to. Here we go with the review. Prepare your tomatoes and raw eggs (someone actually threw a raw egg at me once for fun but it bounced from my bum �)
Sapiens� beginning was fantastic. I loved the author’s voice and the information about the early days of the human kind was fascinating. I did not read any non-fiction about the origin of humans so I was excited to understand our origins better. I could not stop highlighting interesting passages to include in my review or to read later. Here are some of the ones that picked my interest.
“It’s relatively easy to agree that only Homo sapiens can speak about things that don’t really exist, and believe six impossible things before breakfast. You could never convince a monkey to give you a banana by promising him limitless bananas after death in monkey heaven.�
“Telling effective stories is not easy. The difficulty lies not in telling the story, but in convincing everyone else to believe it. Much of history revolves around this question: how does one convince millions of people to believe particular stories about gods, or nations, or limited liability companies? Yet when it succeeds, it gives Sapiens immense power, because it enables millions of strangers to cooperate and work towards common goals.�
However, everything started to go downhill from somewhere in the middle of Part II. From an eager and excited reader I slowly became pissed off, disappointed and struggled to finish. I had several problems that plagued my reading experience and I plan to exemplify them below.
First of all, I soon grew tired of the author’s ironic and condescending humor. His ego was transpiring from all his words and his personal opinions and the way he tried to enforce them annoyed me more and more.
Secondly, I felt like many of his assumptions and extrapolations had no proof and they only represent the author’s personal opinion. For example, the way he supported for the whole book that humans were better of as hunter-gathers without bringing no real arguments to support his opinion.
Finally, I had a problem with the scope of Sapiens. As the titles suggests, the book tries to be A Brief History of Humankind. I believe he did not succeed very well to do that and the reason is that it is quite impossible to do what the author planned in less than 500 pages. The task is too vast. The result is mix of everything with no structure, jumping from one subject to another and confusing the reader. The information was too vague, too general, it all resembled a set of interesting trivia.
When reading other negative reviews of Sapiens I stumbled repeatedly on a recommendation: Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. The book was already on my TBR so it is going to be the next read on the subject. I hope it will be better.
Sapiens� beginning was fantastic. I loved the author’s voice and the information about the early days of the human kind was fascinating. I did not read any non-fiction about the origin of humans so I was excited to understand our origins better. I could not stop highlighting interesting passages to include in my review or to read later. Here are some of the ones that picked my interest.
“It’s relatively easy to agree that only Homo sapiens can speak about things that don’t really exist, and believe six impossible things before breakfast. You could never convince a monkey to give you a banana by promising him limitless bananas after death in monkey heaven.�
“Telling effective stories is not easy. The difficulty lies not in telling the story, but in convincing everyone else to believe it. Much of history revolves around this question: how does one convince millions of people to believe particular stories about gods, or nations, or limited liability companies? Yet when it succeeds, it gives Sapiens immense power, because it enables millions of strangers to cooperate and work towards common goals.�
However, everything started to go downhill from somewhere in the middle of Part II. From an eager and excited reader I slowly became pissed off, disappointed and struggled to finish. I had several problems that plagued my reading experience and I plan to exemplify them below.
First of all, I soon grew tired of the author’s ironic and condescending humor. His ego was transpiring from all his words and his personal opinions and the way he tried to enforce them annoyed me more and more.
Secondly, I felt like many of his assumptions and extrapolations had no proof and they only represent the author’s personal opinion. For example, the way he supported for the whole book that humans were better of as hunter-gathers without bringing no real arguments to support his opinion.
Finally, I had a problem with the scope of Sapiens. As the titles suggests, the book tries to be A Brief History of Humankind. I believe he did not succeed very well to do that and the reason is that it is quite impossible to do what the author planned in less than 500 pages. The task is too vast. The result is mix of everything with no structure, jumping from one subject to another and confusing the reader. The information was too vague, too general, it all resembled a set of interesting trivia.
When reading other negative reviews of Sapiens I stumbled repeatedly on a recommendation: Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. The book was already on my TBR so it is going to be the next read on the subject. I hope it will be better.
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Reading Progress
February 22, 2017
– Shelved
February 22, 2017
– Shelved as:
to-read
February 22, 2017
– Shelved as:
non-fiction
July 20, 2017
–
Started Reading
August 4, 2017
–
20.0%
September 18, 2017
–
40.0%
September 21, 2017
–
99.0%
September 26, 2017
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-50 of 139 (139 new)
message 1:
by
Ken
(new)
Sep 26, 2017 02:34AM
Stand your ground! GR is for honest opinions (and I love reading dissenting opinions).
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Well articulated review. I've bought the audiobook for this but I haven't listened to it yet.
Thanks for this. Sapiens was on my radar but I think I will give it a miss after this insightful review. BTW I have read Guns, germs and steel and can wholeheartedly recommend it.One question if I may. What did you do to have someone throw an egg at you?
Ken wrote: "Stand your ground! GR is for honest opinions (and I love reading dissenting opinions)." I will. I find negative opinions are the easiest to write. Sometimes even fun but it wasn't the case with this one.
Bianca wrote: "Well articulated review. I've bought the audiobook for this but I haven't listened to it yet." Thank you. i hope you will find more value in the audiobook than i did.
Ray wrote: "Thanks for this. Sapiens was on my radar but I think I will give it a miss after this insightful review. BTW I have read Guns, germs and steel and can wholeheartedly recommend it.One question if ..." Thanks. I will definitely read Guns, ... .
As regards the egg, I did nothing. Someone thought it would be fun to throw eggs from the window/roof and try to hit passers by. I was there at the wrong moment, i guess. Luckily, it did not break.
If everyone loved the same books, there would be no point in writing and reading reviews.
Thanks for sharing your opinion on this book! I gave this book 4 stars, but I absolutely agree with you about every mentioned flaw of this book, including "condescending humor" and too much of the author's personal opinion. Though I still want to give his Homo Deus a go one day.
Greta wrote: "If everyone loved the same books, there would be no point in writing and reading reviews." True! Thank you for adding me as your friend. I was considering doing that as well but you were faster.
Netta wrote: "Thanks for sharing your opinion on this book! I gave this book 4 stars, but I absolutely agree with you about every mentioned flaw of this book, including "condescending humor" and too much of the ..." Thank you for agreeing with me. I guess it is of matter for how much the things I wrote about takes from the enjoyment of the book. For me it was a lot. i am happy that for you it was a better experience. I bought Homo Deus as a Kindle Deal some time ago but i have no plan to read it now. i did not like the last chapter so i deleted the book from my ereader. i hope you will like it.
Oh... this sounds a bit worrying. I actually got this book for my birthday, and was really excited about it, inspite of its length.
Ms. Smartarse wrote: "Oh... this sounds a bit worrying. I actually got this book for my birthday, and was really excited about it, inspite of its length." You might like it. And if you don't...at least you did not pay for it :))
Adina wrote: "Ms. Smartarse wrote: "Oh... this sounds a bit worrying. I actually got this book for my birthday, and was really excited about it, inspite of its length." You might like it. And if you don't...at l..."No, but my parents did, and they were so excited about it. Add the fact that they bought it in English, to "ensure" that I definitely read it (I miiiight be a bit of a snob when it comes to reading in Romanian)... makes me feel bad.
On the other hand, I did browse through the first few pages a bit, and liked the tone and the content. Oh and I especially enjoyed going through the chronological list at the beginning. Fingers crossed, I'll like it after all. :P
Ms. Smartarse wrote: "Adina wrote: "Ms. Smartarse wrote: "Oh... this sounds a bit worrying. I actually got this book for my birthday, and was really excited about it, inspite of its length." You might like it. And if yo..." Ohh, it is different them. I feel so bad if i don't like something my parents gift me. You will probably like it. i seem to be the exception. The beginning is great. I am snob about reading in Romanian as well. I mostly read books in my native tongue is they were originally published in other language than English. So, i mainly read in English.
Oh, I see. Sorry about that!
Hi Adina. No eggs from me! I like contrarians. Concerning your point #2: The idea that hunter gatherers lived a healthier, more leisurely, freer and generally better life is a frequent point of discussion for about 10 years now. You mentioned Jared Diamond, and this comes up in some of his scholarly writing (although not in his books).
Frank wrote: "Hi Adina. No eggs from me! I like contrarians. Concerning your point #2: The idea that hunter gatherers lived a healthier, more leisurely, freer and generally better life is a frequent point of di..." Ok, it might be true. As I said, it is the first time i read a book about this subject so I am not an expert. It might be true that it is a frequent discussion as I am sure there are many arguments against it. What bothered me was that it went on and on and on about it. And the chatty tone. I was thankful that the writing was accessible but the overall impression was of amateurism.
Great review, Adina! I love your honesty. Life would certainly be boring if we all loved the same books. 😉
Melissa wrote: "Great review, Adina! I love your honesty. Life would certainly be boring if we all loved the same books. 😉" Thank you. Indeed it would
I haven't read the book, Adina, so I can't throw eggs at your bottom, but an honest review is always to be applauded.
Kevin wrote: "I haven't read the book, Adina, so I can't throw eggs at your bottom, but an honest review is always to be applauded." :)) Thank Kevin.
Someone just told me to read this book because this nonfiction reads like a fiction. Do you think so? I'm glad to know your likes & dislikes though. Great review!
Oh good! I'm not alone.I gave up on this one way to early to claim that I read it.
It was shaky ground from the rhetoric that species hybrids are always sterile. Well no, it depends on the degree of separation and even mules and lygers occasionally reproduce.
When he started referring to other hominids as animals we successfully interbred with, It had to go.
Lori wrote: "Oh good! I'm not alone.I gave up on this one way to early to claim that I read it.
It was shaky ground from the rhetoric that species hybrids are always sterile. Well no, it depends on the degr..." i did not know about the species interbreeding and sterility but there were other subject that I felt he did not check enough. You did not lose much.
Your just spot on ! That’s exactly how I feel after just reading 50 pages . It seems the writer wanted to write human history as a fascinating story rather than a scientific account , which is great . Except that he is less than a mediocre story teller and we are left with a collection of very general and dull information .
Lior wrote: "Your just spot on ! That’s exactly how I feel after just reading 50 pages . It seems the writer wanted to write human history as a fascinating story rather than a scientific account , which is grea..." Exactly, he can only write in dialogue and a poor one.
I was very disappointed with Guns, Germs, and Steel - "mix of everything with no structure" right there - I'm growing increasingly wary of this new wave of popular history writing. Thanks for the review. Had been in your "camp" all along anyway, after reading, quite some time ago now, my "friends" Marc Gerstein's excellent and Maciek's superb review : highly recommended.
Koen wrote: "I was very disappointed with Guns, Germs, and Steel - "mix of everything with no structure" right there - I'm growing increasingly wary of this new wave of popular history writing. Thanks for the r..." Sorry to hear that, I was hoping that one would be better. it is nice to know I have people on my camp :)
I agree with your review, I'm reading it now and struggling to finish because I have difficulty seeing past the biased tone and verbosity of the writing. I know it's a popular book and am trying to finish it but I'm glad I have found someone who didn't enjoy it!
Greta wrote: "If everyone loved the same books, there would be no point in writing and reading reviews." I loved you, but your Christian-fundamentalist hatred turned me off.
Greta wrote: "If everyone loved the same books, there would be no point in writing and reading reviews."Greta wrote: "If everyone loved the same books, there would be no point in writing and reading reviews."
Greta wrote: "If everyone loved the same books, there would be no point in writing and reading reviews."
OK, I'm still in love with you.
Koen wrote: "Greta wrote: "If everyone loved the same books, there would be no point in writing and reading reviews."Greta wrote: "If everyone loved the same books, there would be no point in writing and read..." HUH?
Misa wrote: "I agree with your review, I'm reading it now and struggling to finish because I have difficulty seeing past the biased tone and verbosity of the writing. I know it's a popular book and am trying to..." Don't force yourself, The best was the beginning. After that it went downhill.
Adina wrote: "Koen wrote: "Greta wrote: "If everyone loved the same books, there would be no point in writing and reading reviews."Greta wrote: "If everyone loved the same books, there would be no point in wri..."
I placed this on my TBR shelf only to remove it a couple of minutes later after reading your review. Thank you for your unpopular opinion :)
Victor *we were on a break!* wrote: "I placed this on my TBR shelf only to remove it a couple of minutes later after reading your review. Thank you for your unpopular opinion :)" :)) That was quick. i hope i did not lead you astray.
I thought the book is important reading for serious-minded, self-reflective sapiens. But, like you, I have a few reservations. I found most thought-provoking aspect of “Sapiens� is the author’s questioning of whether historical revolutions have any implication for human happiness. His answer is that the evolutionary success of our species, along with the technological powers we’ve gained, has brought much individual suffering. A case in point, he said is the Agricultural Revolution, which kept many more people alive under much worse conditions. And the Scientific Revolution has arguably given a Chinese factory worker today a harder life than his hunter-gatherer ancestors had. He concludes, history’s successful revolutions disregard the well-being of individuals. I think contrary to the author assertion that history may be at odds with individual happiness, advancement through the Agrarian , Scientific and Industrial revolutions enabled individuals to toil less, produce more and provide humans with more leisurely time than the hunters and gatherers who had to work on their feet during most daylight hours. In addition advancement in science enabled humanity to combat disease and live a more comfortable, longer and healthier lives. Technological developments relieved individual from strenuous hard labor and in the future the use of robots and advances in Artificial Intelligence will contribute to happier life .
Sam wrote: "I thought the book is important reading for serious-minded, self-reflective sapiens. But, like you, I have a few reservations. I found most thought-provoking aspect of “Sapiens� is the author’s que..." i agree with. I am not sure they were that happy when they dies at 20 because of a simple infection. The Danish are said to be the happiest people in the world and you can see they do no lack much, they have money, education, technology etc.
Yes "Guns, Germs and Steel" is better, but not by much. Jared Diamond's "Third Chimpanzee" gives a good overview of comparing apes to humans. However when he mentions that ninety percent of the six hundred or so genes we have that chimps don't are all on the same chromosome (2) he doesn't explore that lack of randomness.
Helio wrote: "Yes "Guns, Germs and Steel" is better, but not by much. Jared Diamond's "Third Chimpanzee" gives a good overview of comparing apes to humans. However when he mentions that ninety percent of the six..." Hmm, I won'y hurry to read that one either then.
I am up to about page 100- I like the author's perspective that we didn't domesticate plants and animals but they domesticated us (to be their servants).
Helio wrote: "I am up to about page 100- I like the author's perspective that we didn't domesticate plants and animals but they domesticated us (to be their servants)." That part is fine but I felt it went on and on with that idea and with less scientific proof.
Yes the book is a lot of conjecture (not history)
Nottingham to London via Sherwood Forest! Basic mistake, basic geography, basic book.
I'm past page 200 and I am appreciating the author's perspective more and more. However I still think it is conjecture not history.
Lance wrote: "Nottingham to London via Sherwood Forest! Basic mistake, basic geography, basic book." Agree.
Thanks for your great review! I was having trouble articulating why I really liked the book in the beginning and then started feeling a frustrated.
I found the early part of the book interesting and informative, up until Peugot. By page 35 I already feel irritated by the author's condescending tone. It also seems to me that much of what he has to say about society is rather obvious and unenlightning. This author seems to have all the answers already, but his early message appears to be that we should not believe such people, who are 'sorcerers'... I have lost interest in what he has to say.
Brett wrote: "I found the early part of the book interesting and informative, up until Peugot. By page 35 I already feel irritated by the author's condescending tone. It also seems to me that much of what he has..." Same here. Glad to see I am not the only one.
