by Tom Standage Non-fiction This is a fascinating book that covers the effects that six significant beverages have had on the shaping of history; beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea and cola. I had already known about the ancient origins of beer, but learning that wine was originally distilled by...
The author provides an interesting perspective on the influence that various drinks had on civilization, culture and the spread of ideas and empires from the Stone Age to the 21st Century. He starts of with beer in Mesopotamia and Egypt; progresses to wine in Greece and Rome; then the concoction an...
This book discusses the rise of six drinks as alternatives to water and some of it was actually rather interesting. Some of it was known to me, of course, but the couple of chapters for each drink gave a nice overview and I did learn a few things. I shouldn't have to praise this but no physical desc...
What an awesome book, a fascinating perspective on history. This is the kind of book that had me constantly badgering my husband to listen to the dozen cool new things I just learned from that day's chapter. Standage told a coherent history from hunter gatherer times to modern day, and it didn't f...
#3 on the histories of everyday objects list, Standage's overview of beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola succeeds in what is actually a sort of difficult writing exercise--finding the special in the mundane, in one sense; and showing how everyday objects impacted history. the book is not perf...
Quite an interesting look at the world from the point of view of 6 different drinks. Beer to start, then Wine, Spirits, Coffee, tea and Cola. Beer is part of ancient history, a time when it was a safe drink when water was polluted. Wine came next, accompanying Classical Greece and Rome, where the...
2-2.5 stars. The writing is so so and the interpretation of the roles/embodiments of the six glasses is kinda awkward. Still, the book does present some interesting knowledge about these drinks
The subject of this book read like a regular Friday or Saturday for me. Start out with a glass of good red wine or a pint of English hard cider (not much of a beer drinker, so that's my substitute), before moving on to the rum/vodka/whiskey, whatever the drink of choice is for the rest of the eveni...
2 stars mean "it was okay", which is how I would describe this book. I would describe it as more novel than overly insightful. It wasn't bad by any means, and had some interesting things to say, but got mildly repetitive. Might be because I listened to the audiobook and the reader was quite boring,...
Important: Our sites use cookies.
We use the information stored using cookies and similar technologies for advertising and statistics purposes.
Stored data allow us to tailor the websites to individual user's interests.
Cookies may be also used by third parties cooperating with BookLikes, like advertisers, research companies and providers of multimedia applications.
You can choose how cookies are handled by your device via your browser settings.
If you choose not to receive cookies at any time, BookLikes will not function properly and certain services will not be provided.
For more information, please go to our Privacy Policy.
Log in with Facebook 
