I lost interest in this book. It's not the book's fault. I feel like I'm just too distracted lately with gardening and other stuff to focus on books so scholarly as this. The Natural History of Unicorns is just what its title says: a detailed look at how the legend of unicorns arose (in countries all across the world, no less). It traces ancient reports of strange animals back to their real flesh-and-blood owners (ranging from the rhinoceros and narwhal to various antelopes, goats and the okapi). It searches for the true source of material called unicorn horn that was worked into knife handles and other ornamental articles in antiquities. It examines how the unicorn got worked into religious symbolism and allegory, and where the ideas of its magical properties sprang from. It even tells about experiments that manipulated goat and cow's horns to create a one-horned animal. But I only got halfway through. Somehow all the details were dulling my interest. I'm just not in the right mood for this one, at the moment. I need to find something else to read.Borrowed from the public library.
Abandoned........ 258 pages, 2009
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Sorry to hear it didn't work for you right now - but I'm glad you brought it to my attention, as it sounds right up my alley.
ReplyDeleteNymeth- well, I hope you like it better than I did! I'm sure you will- most readers seem to have. I think I'm going to try and read it again sometime down the road.
ReplyDeleteBummer it didn't work for you :( I was hoping it would! I like your drawings from it!! I think i might try this one out anyway ;)
ReplyDeleteChris- it's one I feel really frustrated at myself for not liking! Give it a try- I'm sure it's just my mood, and quite an excellent book of itself.
ReplyDeleteIt might have been a case of the right book at the wrong time. Too bad.
ReplyDeleteThis does sound interesting, but I agree you have to be in a particular sort of mood to read a scholarly book. I'd love to give it a try!
ReplyDeleteBermudaonion- Yes, I think so. I'll probably try it again later.
ReplyDeleteJenny- I think that's just what it was, I wasn't in the right mood. Do tell me what you think of it, when you read it someday.