Book Review: SALT: A WORLD HISTORY

Author: Mark Kurlansky
Number of Pages: 484
Publisher: Penguin Books
Release Date: January 2002

In his book Salt: A World History, Mark Kurlansky tells the tale of the only rock humans eat as it goes through time. He recounts how salt fluctuates in value, means completely different things to different people and cultures, and how it ultimately changes history time and time again.

First of all, let me start out by saying how impressed I was that someone actually wrote an entire, substantially sized book about SALT. I mean, who has the time- or the motivation- to do that? Apparently Mark Kurlansky had both, because this was actually a pretty enjoyable book to read. I learned so much about salt from this novel (too much about salt? Maybe.) and it forced me to look at such a common, everyday item from a different perspective. Who knew that salt influenced history so drastically? It makes me wonder about the vast histories of other items that I use every day.

However, while I did enjoy this book, there are also some negative aspects to it. I mean, let's be frank: reading about a rock for upwards of four hundred pages can get sort of boring after a while. But I don't think that is necessarily the fault of Mark Kurlansky- I think that no matter who wrote about salt, the book would always be a bit boring. (Well.... except maybe if John Green wrote it. :))
Anyways, other than the fact that this book was boring in some parts and dragged on a bit, it was quite entertaining.

It is to my understanding that Mark Kurlansky has written other books pertaining to world history.... I'm still deciding if I want to read them or not, though. Overall, this was a great book!

My Rating: :0) :0) :0) :0) 4 out of 5 smileys.

Would I recommend it to a friend?: Yes, if they enjoyed reading non-fiction books or had some obsession or love of salt. Otherwise they probably wouldn't enjoy this book much.

Later,
NutFreeNerd