Well it's time for another trip to the Hobbit Library and I found a book that I have been wanting to read for a while so now I had the perfect excuse. The book in question is called Tales of the Night Sky: Revealing the Mythologies and Folklore Behind the Constellations by Robin Kerrod. This isn't normally the type of book I would go for but, seeing as it was from a discount bookstore, I thought I had nothing to lose.
I put more wood on the fire and made myself a warm drink and a snack, well Hobbits need snacks and refreshments, and sat down in my comfy armchair and decided to have a look through the book before I began to read it. There's an introduction which I liked the look of and then the book is split into sections that made it easier for me to navigate.
During my skim read, as I shall refer to it, I could see that the Constellations chapter and the Wandering Stars chapter were both laid out the same. It was a rather simple way, one page of writing and then an illustration about the constellation or the planet and I really liked that as it was just the right amount of writing and the picture was clear to see as well. The illustrations have a whole page which means they can be enlarged and can be clearly seen. I thought all the illustrations were so pretty to see and I will admit that I stared at them for a while.
Eventually I decided to read it and soon began to get lost in Roman and Greek mythology and folklore. I was transported on a journey of the skies. You see each constellation can be tied to either Greek or Roman or both ancient civilisations. I found that fascinating as I knew that some constellations and planets were tied to the Romans but I didn't know that they were tied to the Ancient Greeks as well.
I loved that the writing told of the stories behind the constellations or planets and why they were called that name. It was interesting to read that the Greeks called it one name but the Romans called it another and that most of the names we know everything as today is the Roman versions, especially with the planets.
If I'm being honest I got a little bored with the constellations section. It was all very interesting but I think that they could have split them down a little more. I mean they could have done the Northern and Southern Hemisphere or even blocked them with the alphabetical order. I feel that the Northern and Southern would have been the better way to have divided it as swinging between the two hemispheres got a little confusing. It was hard at times whether I was looking at a Northern Hemisphere constellation or a Southern Hemisphere one.
Overall I really enjoyed looking at the book and learning about the constellations and planets. In fact I'm going to read the planets section again. My favourite planet is Saturn, followed by Jupiter. What's yours? That's all from The Hobbit's Library this month.
Lots of love,
Cissarose xx