Sapiens

Lots to think about... I loved some of it, and many of the ideas presented made me question my outlook of the world! He also, however, threw a few curved balls, and let myth sit as fact in places. One of my favourite stories from the book, the one about Buzz Aldrin and the Native American, looks to be a myth for example. Other sections just didn't come to much (the chapter on gender for example, although it was written 2011 and these debates develop quickly). It is interesting to see how the book has aged... sometimes well, sometimes not so much. Overall worth the read, and helpful for reflecting on these things.

This books tries to talk about everything but ends up talking about nothing.

It takes the sweetest bits, the sensational bits, from the most popular disciplines, smash them together to make a very provocative and fascinating book. Going through chapter after chapter felt like brainlessly scrolling through TikTok style videos, the obnoxious particular kind that start with the phrase "Did you knogw that...".

I think that Harari wanted to be impersonal while expounding his favourite scientific facts, nonetheless I found him to be tendentious and biased, even if only in a small number of occasions, particularly when adding to the fact.

Nice historical factoids, then a head-scratching over-simplification, followed by an assumption, etc. Sometimes felt like reading a puffed-up Wikipedia article.

Bon llibre que fa un repàs, evidentment succint, a la història de la humanitat des de l'inici fins, més o menys, ara, des d'un punt de vista molt crític al capitalisme, al liberalisme i a la forma de gestionar-ho tot que tenim els humans en general. Una molt bona, a estones densa, lectura.

I can see why everyone from Bill Gates to Barack Obama was raving about it. It's an extremely compelling, accessible history - almost like a novelization - of humankind.

Loved the author's perspective, the way he built history with a refreshing detachment, as if seen from an alien. Some chapters were particularly fertile in making me think, such as the social constructs that drive us, the way we have instrumented dairy animals... Politics weren't deeply discussed but I guess that's fair, all things considered. I must point out I am not a regular history books reader either. It's more of a 4.5 rating.