Done reading Herodotus' Histories.

The first six books are quite confusing, so many names, places and tribes.

The next two books are awesome and real page turners. They describe the war of Xerxes vs. the Greeks, especially the battle that is depicted in the movie 300 (King Leonidas and 300 Spartans vs 2.5 million Persians). It turns out the movie is quite close to what is described in this book. Now I like that movie even more :)

Just like with The Old Testament, my main takeaway from this book is how utterly savage humans have been ever since the beginning of times. We are living in the most awesome and peaceful times ever and I must wonder when the next big calamity will hit us - because one thing seems certain: murdering, pillaging, looting, raping, scheming, stealing and destroying simply seems to be what humans (men in particular) like to do.

#books #GreatBooksOfWesternCivilisation #history