It was a slow read that took too much focus to get into with any sort or rhythm. The topic sounded interesting first because China is a main exporter as well as player in the world market. However this book was filled with turns, as the Dutch managed to loose and gain Chinese permission for trade. several times through the 19 year span that this book is focused on. This novel could have been written in half the pages with half the information provided. The writing style was good however and once the book took off a little it became bearable. Maybe this opinion of this book is biased because of the time of which is was read but personally I still feel as if the book repeated on its self way too many times for it to contain any sort of message to the reader other than China during the mid to late 17th century was not a nation that business could be done with, despite the abundance of resources.
-- Vlad. Putin
One review of this book described it as painstaking. I take it your view would emphasize more on the pain...
ReplyDeleteDoes the author offer any explanation of why the Dutch fail to dominate China in later years??
~KLM
While the topic sounds interesting, it's too bad to hear that the information was not presented in an interesting way. The title sounds like the title of the book "Guns, Germs, and Steel" is "Pepper, Guns and Parsley" by the same author?
ReplyDelete--Sacagawea
Was "Pepper, Guns, and Parsley" focused mainly on the different spices, like did it explain a lot about Pepper and parsley or were those just examples to intro into a book about trade?
ReplyDelete-Evita
@Sacagawea
ReplyDeleteI agree with your question.
@Evita
The third word in the title is Parleys, not parsley.
@Putin
Likewise, I really felt that my book was repetitive.
~Vladimir Lenin
The topic sounds interesting, and my book was a slow read also, not very interesting
ReplyDelete-Harriet Tubman
It sounds to me like reading this book would really suck, something you'd fall asleep trying to read, however much information exists within. Though, if I ever wondered for the history of grain, I may just pick this one up.
ReplyDelete-Mohandas Gandhi
I felt as though my book could have been written in less pages also. I was wondering if the author mentioned anything about trade with the British?
ReplyDelete-Lady GaGa
Too bad the book was not presented better, sounds like it could have been interesting!
ReplyDeleteMissy Elliot
Sounds a lot like my book: interesting information portrayed in way too many pages without an enthralling plot. If "Pepper, Guns, and Parleys" was anything like "The Honourable Comapny", then I think we had pretty much the same summer read experience. Did you find that the timeline jumped back and forth a lot, and that after someone's death was announced the author would jump back to before he or she was dead? That happened quite frequently to me.
ReplyDelete-Otto von Bismarck