Monday, April 29, 2013

Tower of Babel by Bodie Hodge



Tower of Babel by Bodie Hodge is a collection of essays, each addressing a different question/topic related to the subject of the Tower of Babel. I was very interested to get this book to read, especially since this year in homeschooling my kids we have been learning about ancient history. These topics are on the forefront of our conversations these days, and having learned all about the ancient peoples (yes, I learn it too, not just the kids!), I was familiar with some good background information.

The book addresses a huge amount of questions. Interesting questions. Some that the average person would come up with and others more in-depth. Each is answered with a Biblical and historical basis. The content was good. A lot of information, but good information. It's not an easy read, pretty academic. It started out an interesting read, but it took me so looooooooooong to read it--I kind of felt like I was just slogging through when it got further into the second half of the book.

One thing that annoyed me as I was reading is the immense amount of footnotes on EACH PAGE!!! (rather than at the end of the essay). For some reason this distracted me and it was not until a few essays in that I was able to read through without being distracted by them. :) Maybe just my own quirk.

My constructive criticism is that I believe this book would be a LOT more effective as a reference if it had a detailed index. There was no index, just the chapter title listing in the beginning of the book. I think the book could be used in many more applications if it had a good index. I cannot imagine WHY they didn't include one!

So -- would I recommend this book? Unless you are really into ancient history and ancient geneologies and family group migration, etc. you may find it a bit long and dry. It would, however, serve nicely as a reference book. In the reference book niche I would be more apt to recommend it.

More info on this book can be found here as well as on the publisher's site here.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review.

No comments:

Post a Comment