The Natural History of Unicorns by Christopher LaversMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I'm a sucker for what I call "microhistories," books exploring a single thing. The Natural History of Unicorns is a fine example of the genre, being extremely thorough while maintaining readability. Chris Lavers traces the myths that may have brought unicorns to us, the mistranslations and prevarications that have confused, and the scientific basis and searches for unicorns over the years. The main thing I'm taking from this is to take a huge grain of salt with anything promising "ancient wisdom" - the amount of confusion in translation over so many years seems staggering.
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2 comments:
Multnomah County library has this one. I'm going to try it.
Staggering? That seems like a bit of an understatement. :) Probably a book every girl with her head stuck in the clouds needs to read to get her feet back on the ground, eh? :)
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