A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam by Karen Armstrong

A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam by Karen Armstrong
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is actually an extremely good book, and probably very necessary if you want to understand religious beliefs, especially Christianity, Islam and Judaism. I found it quite heavy at times, but I'm glad I stuck with it. Also interesting to see that what I thought were current trends in religion were actually quite different when put into historical context.

Some things I found especially interesting:
- how the emphasis on literal interpretation that came about during the reformation led to unavoidable discrepancies and contradictions, and this led to people to start to become bona fide atheists (p. 291)
- Christianity used to be a religion of revolution, now it is a religion of the status quo (p. 20)
- how Christianity is a religion of loss and failure, while Islam has always been more a religion of triumph, and the differences caused by this
- the thorough chronological history of the three Abrahamic religions and how they tie into each other

I saw other readers complain that it was boring, which it really was at certain points. I don't really blame the author, but a good editor should have been able to cut down certain parts, or make them more palatable. Having said that, it's worth trudging through these to get to the good points.





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The Talent Code: Unlocking the Secret of Skill in Sports, Art, Music, Math, and Just About Everything Else by Daniel Coyle (Goodreads Author)

The Talent Code: Unlocking the Secret of Skill in Sports, Art, Music, Math, and Just About Everything Else by Daniel Coyle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Actually an excellent book. From the renaissance to Korean female golfers of today to the Bronte sisters to the Z-boys in the 1970s, he examines clusters of talent and genius and how they came to be.

Oddly I feel like it should have been either shorter or longer. It would've made a great article, while as a book it could have expanded more into how we can apply what he says in different settings (have there been other studies on this? Are there differences between applying his steps to one main endeavor and trying to apply them to many different aspects in our life, such as getting better at our job, learning a new language, playing a musical instrument, and sports, all at the same time?).

Obviously I don't know enough to confirm or refute the science, and it sounded a tad snake-oil salesman-y at times, but it does seem like a very interesting premise. A step up from the whole "10 years' experience" or "10,000 hours rule" theories.


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