Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

I absolutely love this book. It is straight to the point Irish history with quite a bit of humor (or at least my kind of humor)thrown in. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire story of Saint Patrick and how a pagan culture slowly became a Christian country based on the bravery of St. Patrick and others who entered Ireland to spread God's word. In addition, was the theme of how so many ancient writings that scholars love to study today would not even exist without the Irish monks who made it their duty to transcribe Roman writings. All the history and learnings of Rome were preserved far away when Rome actually fell and its libraries with their wealth of knowledge were burnt to the ground.

I also loved this book. I enjoy when someone write a book that is positive about different cultures

I didn't like Thomas Cahill's presentation style. I will admit that I haven't studied classical (Roman) literature more than just the introduction in school classes so he lost me because of that. Also it was evident that he has a great love of lots of different literature. But I didn't like his durogatory remarks and constant referral to sex. Dissing Will Durant by calling him unoriginal seemed to be just a swipe at a competitor. Personally I like Will Durant's way of laying out history because it is easy to understand. Also I don't want a historian to be original, I want them to give me history without twisting it for themselves. I think Thomas Cahill twisted what he gave us. I can just imagine him as a relatively "old" man standing in front of his relatively "young" college students and "shocking" them by using offensive language to label sex and pointing out as many aberrant sexual practices of ancient people as he could. Particularly delighting in showing pictures and reading poems. Of course it didn't help my opinion when he slammed Mormonism. The inaccuracy of that statement threw everything else he said "out the window" because he obviously didn't know what he was talking about. I did find it interesting to read about St. Patrick and the other Irish missionaries that succeeded him and just have to hope that there was some accuracy in that.

Well that is what made this one of my favorite's. I love the sarcasm, the derogatory remarks made the book hilarious and I loved it. I often laughed out loud while enjoy this presentation style. If this man was one of my college professors, I would have thoroughly enjoyed sitting in his classes. I guess if you are offended by certain aspects of the book, then that is all that you are able to focus on. I enjoyed the overall history written in an easy flowing format, not bothered by minimal transgressions.

I didn't just focus on the things I didn't like. I tried to learn from the book but Cahill's negative style was distracting to me. I think sarcasm and derogatory remarks are hurtful and don't build a good learning environment. There are lots of other ways to be humorous and add interest. However, different people like different presentation styles and Cahill's way appeals to many. I'm grateful we live in a time that books are so plentiful and available that we have lots to choose from.

Yep, glad we are not completely limited in our reading by others' opinions.

i really enjoying reading everyones opinions even when they are not the same as mine