Salt: A World History

This is one of those books that I debated not finishing. It's a history of the world, seen through the lens of salt. It's all about how salt has influenced trade, taxes, and cuisine around the world. How it helped to globalize the economy and the culture, and what's changed as we've begun to understand it (and chemistry) better and salt has gone from rare to common.

This is all interesting stuff, and I honestly learned a lot while I was reading this book. Which is why I pushed through and finished it. I kept coming across interesting facts that I found myself having to share with Kevin. It gave me a new appreciation for the food I was eating and all the many uses of salt in our world. It made me want to visit the Italian Riviera

But it was also an incredibly dry, boring book. There were innumerable lists, and it was easy to get bogged down in all the details. All the ins and outs of tax codes and ship building got tiresome and difficult to navigate. I wanted a bit more narrative and a bit less presentation of facts.

It was a struggle to get through this book, and I definitely won't be looking for any of his other books (salt is at least interesting - who cares about cod?). But I learned something, so it wasn't a total waste.

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