September - theme: Non-Fiction
A History of the World in Six Glasses by Tom Standage
This was a London book box find. That book box was the first I had ever encountered and it was a delight. Housed in an old red telephone box, it had acres of choice and the books changed on an almost daily basis. I had some great finds from that box.
Back to the book: Tom Standage took a chronological angle to his history of the world. This meant the beginning was interminable and the end fascinating. Did you know there was a cold war version of coca-cola, packaged in white and red with soviet symbols. Or that China would only trade with the British East India Company for silver, leading to a vast smuggling network to buy back the silver from China for Opium. Great nuggets of information abounded in the second half of the book, however the first half with details of beer drinking in ancient civilization did leave me a bit cold.
The writing was clear and easy to read, this is definitely a light-read non-fiction book for the average person. Only the most basic knowledge of history is assumed (yep, I know there were 2 world wars) so it was easy to follow for someone like me who stopped studying history at school at age 14. I thought the premise was a clever way to tie in the whole of world history into one book.