This book is very hard to classify--so, OTHER was the closest thing! This book revolves around the central thesis that literacy and the alphabet reconfigured the human brain, and subsequently brought serious changes into human culture: religion, history, etc. The oldest religions worshipped the Mother Goddess figure, yet, when reading and writing came into the picture (roughly 5000-4000 BCE) the supremacy of the female deity faded, and the male deities became more and more prominent. Shlain traces this fundamental change throughout history... a phenomenal book that has caused controversy thus far (I am sure more is to come!)

This book covers so many things, and teaches you so much. Not a dull moment at all with this one!

I am going to share this amazing book with others! Please PM me if you would like to be in my bookring!

Participants:

Guinneth (NH, US)
Too-Ticki (Denmark)
tutmarie (Denmark)
Majosim (Denmark)
Jolanda (Netherlands)
loopy1 (UK)
amynsperry (OK, US)**Current Reader**
kikimasu (FL, US)
Sarabeth (TX, US)
Talon2Claw (OH, US)
RlyLv2Rd (MN, US)
PokPok (CA, US)
Jenvince (CA, US)
JesseBC (IL, US)
...
BecFromMD (GA, US)
Seferim (MD, US)

And the bookring starts its journey...

Sending to Guinneth -- Enjoy!

Got it! I'll be starting this one tonight - perfect timing. :)

Mailed to Too-Ticki today.

The scope of this book is vast, but Shlain's astonishing thesis remains clear throughout: that left-brain values (often including misogynistic tendencies, unfortunately) follow directly in the wake of alphabet literacy.

Hmpf. As a right-brain dominant book-lover who believes that Deity is both feminine and masculine, I was prepared to disagree with much of this book. :) I did find the opening chapters somewhat tedious, but they were necessary to provide a solid grasp of what follows. And make no mistake: what follows is riveting as Shlain follows the alphabet's march across cultures and down through history. I found myself reading at a MUCH slower pace than normal because I kept pausing to reflect, absorb, and re-read. Some of the connections made here are, well, astounding.

In fact, if taken out of context some of his ideas seem pretty far-fetched. After all, what could the invention of the printing press possibly have to do with foot binding, genital mutilation, and the extermination of North America's native peoples? Read and find out. Shlain makes a very convincing argument for all three scenarios, and more. What I found *really* revolutionary here was that he shows how it is not just the content of what people were reading, but also the very difference in brain function required for reading that caused the shift toward linear thinking and then intolerance. The implications are, to say the least, pretty far-reaching.

Shlain is also a good writer. I particularly enjoyed the sections on the birth of Judaism and Christianity, and I found his summation of the psychological aftermath of the European "witchcraze" especially poignant.

Extensively researched, well reasoned, at times poetic, and always thought-provoking, The Alphabet Versus the Goddess is a must-read, in my opinion. Thank you, Seferim, for sharing it with me (and all of us)!

Well, my nemesis has finally hit - when I came home from Berlin last night, there was one Bookring book and one Bookray (and three trades - how I love BC...) waiting for me. This one will get top priority, as it's going to more people than the other, and is a Bookring. Also, it looks really interesting. Thanks!

Fascinating book. In a way, it's a guide through the history of the world, from the point of view of literacy. Shlain makes his point thoroughly, with so many examples that there can be no doubt that he's on to something.
At times he can be far-fetched and one-sided, especially when it comes to nations (the Germans are so-and-so, the Swedes are like this, the entire Russian people thinks like this)(funnily, Americans are never described this way), but in the epilogue he shows that he is aware of this and apologises for it. And it's obvious he's done his research - the few faults I noticed were forgettable.

I enjoyed his writing, and, like Guinneth, was very absorbed by the parts concerning religion. And all the connections! I just love seeing the world as a whole.

The big question after reading this book is: Is Shlain right as to what will happen now? Will we enter a Golden Age of more feminine values (cooperating with the masculine)? One can only hope, but considering what the world looks like at the moment, it might take a while.

I'm buying this book for myself, so I can remind myself (more of a book person than a TV person) that content isn't everything. Reading it has made me think about the way I see the world.

I was hoping I'd find the time to take this over to tutmarie's place in person and save myself some money, but alas, alack, etc., time isn't on my side at the moment. So I sent it by mail today - enjoy!

Thanks Too-Ticki for sending the book over and thanks for the postcard. I've recently started reading A Fine Balance, which is 600+ pages, so I might let Majosim have this one first so that it can move on as soon as possible. I'm looking very much forward to reading it.

I have now started reading the book, but since I've been moving house and am now living in tonnes of boxes, I'm afraid it will take a while for me to read. It looks promising so far, though. Will be back later.

I'm afraid this book is not for me. I don't know what it is - I expected to like it: the subject appealed to me, and so did the reviews. However, I kept falling asleep while reading it, and I felt that the author talked too much about things that aren't relevant to his thesis. So I finally gave up on it. Maybe some other time. Thanks for sharing it though, Seferim. I'll pass the book on to Majosim.

Thanks tutmarie for passing it on to me. I´m in the middle of a few other reading projects so as soon as I finish them I will start reading this one. Looks very interesting.

Today I started reading it...

...and today I finally finished it.
I am sorry that I took so long time reading it. I have been very busy with my studies with a lot of reading connected to it and a big exam.
This book is very interesting and very uducating as well. I´m a student of communication and particular the later chapters have more than once inspired me in connection with papers I had to write.
Thanks for sharing!

Now it's on it's way to Jolanda in the Netherlands. Enjoy!

found it in the mail today. Will start reading soon.


34/4/2004
I'm already reading for a month. And it's very interesting. I enjoy the book a lot and hopefully will finish it soon.

This is one of the most interesting books I have read in years. I have bored my friends with theories from the book and we build our own theories as well. This book made me think about a lot of things and gave me an entire new look on history. Thanks for sharing Seferim!

Yesterday I've put this book in the mail to loopy1

This is one book I've been watching the progress of with interest and eagerly awaiting my turn to read.
It sounds fascinating and I hope to be able to start it within the week at the latest. Thanks for this :-)

This book is by no means an easy read, and I found myself skipping some of the earlier chapters - Greek mythology is not my strong point, and I found the author difficult to follow.
But the beginning was very interesting, and once I'd got past the Greek bit and into the parts of history I was more familiar with I found it absorbing.
The bits that made most impression on me was the bit about the witch hunt - a terrifying time for women and a good explanation of why women have made less contribution to society than men over the last few hundred years - and the bit about China and the Great Leap Forward, especially since I just recently read To the Edge of the Sky, which tells of the time from the point of view of a woman caught up in it. A book that I read at the same time as this one and also seemed to tie in fairly well was The Bookseller of Kabul, which describes the treatment of women under the fundamentalist regime in Afghanistan.
All in all not an easy read, but a very worthwhile one - while I don't remember everything the author said, his ideas have been absorbed and will probably shape my thoughts on the subject in time to come.
Thanks for this - I have the next person's address and the book will be travelling out tomorrow.

I did get this in the mail a few weeks ago. Thanks. It was the first thing from BookCrossing I got at my new place. Yay! It's a bit back in order of books I'm reading, but I will get to it.