The title of the book is pretty much self explanatory. I had opted to listen to the audible version of the book. It took me about a month to finish this almost 15 hrs long book. I was taking it slow. Quite slow to be exact.
The book is a great summary of historical facts from all around the world. Starting from the evolution of Homo Sapiens till the end of colonialism in the world. As per Harari’s analogy, I guess prehistoric hunter gatherers were much happier than the present day human being stuck in the rat race. He discusses the creation and propagation of various religions throughout the world. He also talks about the extinction of various species as we, humans started taking over the earth. Extinction of the dinosaurs led to the evolution of original mammals like mammoths, whose disappearances led to the evolution of homo sapiens. He talks about how J. Robert Oppenheimer “father of the atomic bomb” can certainly be awarded nobel peace prize as he has successfully reduced the chances of world wars.
The book is worth every ounce of time and money. There’s even a graphic art version of the book available. It made me more interested on Indian history and now, I am listening to Inglorious Empire. History, indeed is interesting, unlike my school experience. I used to hate history and Biology in my school days, and had promised to not take up these two subjects later in higher education. 😅 Not that any of it matters anymore.
I usually like reading fiction. Reading these non fiction makes me overthink things which I can’t control. How do you read non-fiction? I observed that I usually place the writer on a pedestal and consider whatever is written as the ultimate truth, which is obviously very common in fictions. This book made me think, what if the author is making up stuff and fabricating facts..!! The media is anyway good at doing it. So do the historians. Do people read these books as fiction and let them be as it is, or consider the writer’s truth to be the ultimate or keep on looking for different versions of truth to make a judgement on it..!! Is it that I don’t know how to read non fictions..!! 😅
Until I write again. 🙂
Just Being Me 