Briellerose is back and ready to delve into another book from the Hobbit Library. I hope that you have been enjoying the books featured lately. I heard bubbles were involved last time. This month, we are talking about ancient civilisations, so let's dive into this month's book.
The book is: Art and History of Egypt by Alberto Carpiceci and talks, obviously, about the art and history of Ancient Egypt. The one thing I love about this book is that it covers all 5000 years of civilization and covers just about everything. I will admit that the start is very word heavy. It's very informative, but it is a lot to read and take in. I will confess that I haven't finished reading the book but, as you move through, the writing is broken down rather nicely with rather lovely pictures of the artefacts and art of the times. I have always loved the Ancient Egyptians and everything about them, so I am enjoying the book.
It does feel a little a little bit of an overload with all the information at the beginning. The first thirty-three pages are mainly text. There are the odd pictures there, but it is very information heavy and I couldn't read as much as I wanted to because of that. There were some photographs in the first few pages, but it did feel quite unbalanced to me, especially compared to the rest of the book.
I do love that the book covers a lot of things. From the Gods and Goddesses, to daily life in Ancient Egypt. The book covers everything you can think of. I loved that there was a timeline of all the Dynasties from the first to the last, which also included other Empires and what was happening in them at the time. I had forgotten that the Greeks and Romans were around at the end of the Egyptian Empire. Some of the last Pharaohs were even Greek or Roman.
I think the last two thirds of the book are really the best as the pictures help balance out the text in the rest of the book. Each photograph has a caption, explaining it, along with a fact. This could have been anything from when it was built to the explorer who discovered it. I really enjoyed that over the huge blocks of text at the beginning of the book. I have enjoyed the book, really, but the beginning is very word heavy.
The book has two fold out covers. The front one covers the Giza Plateau and the back one has a map of the Valley of the Kings, along with a rather nice fold out map of all the monuments of Ancient Egypt and their location on the River Nile. I loved these as I could see exactly where things were located along the river that played such a crucial part of everyday life in Ancient Egypt.
Overall, I am enjoying the book but I couldn't sit and read a lot of it in one go. Anyway, that's all from me this month. Ellieanarose will be back next month.
Lots of love,
Briellerose xx