Book: A Brief History Of The Vikings by Jonathan Clements

Pages/Format: 229/Paperback

My Thoughts: I was completely bored reading this book.  I think I’ve read it before, but I honestly can’t remember.  There’s nothing that’s memorable, and it was really hard for me to get through it because it was really tedious.  It certainly is brief, only clocking in at 229 pages.  The best part of the book (besides finishing it) were the maps and family trees that were in the appendix.

I did like that the first chapter focused completely on the myths and legends of the Vikings, which is the only thing I remember from the actual book.  While I love mythology, I don’t remember anything from that chapter.  It’s unfortunate too, because that chapter alone would’ve bumped up my rating a little more.

However, for such a brief account, the amount of information was overwhelming.  And it was so tedious that I read a chapter every day or two, because that was all I could handle reading.  And that was barely tolerable.

It’s really not a good sign when the most memorable part of the book was finishing it.  Being serious though, the fact that the three things I remember are the maps, the pictures, and the timeline of rulers/family trees isn’t good.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5.  If not for the maps, timeline/family trees and pictures, it would’ve received a 1.