The book club pick about a topic I hated actually changed my whole view

Last month our club picked a nonfiction book about colonial history and I was ready to skip it. After the third chapter I realized the author was telling stories from the ground level not just dates and names. Has anyone else had a book they dreaded turn out to be their favorite of the year?

3 comments

3 Comments

corap6113d ago

Can't relate at all. Those ground-level stories just made me realize how messy and unimpressive history really is, and I ended the book more annoyed at the subject than when I started. Did anybody else find that focusing on one trader's bad choices just made the whole era feel smaller and less important?

finley_smith12d ago

Nah, you're missing the point. History is just messy people making dumb choices, that's what makes it real.

lisas7813d ago

Wait was it the one about the indigenous treaties in the Northeast? My sister forced me to read a book about the fur trade economy and I ended up staying up until 2 AM because the author focused on one trader's actual journal entries from 1763. What specific moment in the book made you change your mind about colonial history being boring? Because for me it was when I realized these were just regular people making terrible decisions not some grand historical figures.