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lexcellent's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
sneakysquid's review against another edition
While this book, as advertised, contains interesting descriptions of manuscripts and those who collected them, I found that the book was more framed in a biographical sense on the authors journey to find and visit the remnants of these collections. While this was undoubtedly personally important for Hamel, I do not know him or his scholarship well enough to care about that.
Also, this book may lend itself better to a non-audio format. So, that is a contributing factor in my DNF.
Also, this book may lend itself better to a non-audio format. So, that is a contributing factor in my DNF.
cqs's review
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
A dense, challenging, vibrant, surprisingly tactile and ultimately tender work that invites the reader not just to learn about the manuscripts and authors themselves but appreciate the terroir of their creation
lizshayne's review against another edition
informative
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
3.0
This book was very pretty and just a cool diversion into a bunch of people's lives and how they intersected with the books they collected.
Also it wasn't until the chapter on David Oppenheim that I realized that most of the collectors...weren't collecting to read and that threw me for a loop. It's not that I know a ton about manuscript culture, but I do have a rather different relationship to them than the average person and it took de Hamel pointing out that the rabbis were different for me to realize that I had completely wrong assumptions about everyone else (except Anselm, yes).
It was a really fun book and my major critique, unsurprisingly, is that he brings up neurodivergence and mental illness to explain problematic character traits when, I promise you, the guy who forgot to change out of his bright green slippers when putting on a tailcoat and hated traveling and fell asleep with the candle burning is not neurotypical, my dude. That could have been handled way better.
Also it wasn't until the chapter on David Oppenheim that I realized that most of the collectors...weren't collecting to read and that threw me for a loop. It's not that I know a ton about manuscript culture, but I do have a rather different relationship to them than the average person and it took de Hamel pointing out that the rabbis were different for me to realize that I had completely wrong assumptions about everyone else (except Anselm, yes).
It was a really fun book and my major critique, unsurprisingly, is that he brings up neurodivergence and mental illness to explain problematic character traits when, I promise you, the guy who forgot to change out of his bright green slippers when putting on a tailcoat and hated traveling and fell asleep with the candle burning is not neurotypical, my dude. That could have been handled way better.