Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - Yuval Noah Harari

This novel took me around a week to read, mostly on public transport and during the odd few spare minutes. Pretty good going for such a hefty book. I rarely read non-fiction books, as I much prefer a story with characters that I can become attached to. This being said, this book is written in such a way that it doesn't feel that you are just reading facts - Harari tells it like a story, making it an enjoyable read rather than it feeling like you are reading a text book. 

Having read numerous reviews of this novel, I have come across a stark division of opinions. It appears that people either absolutely love this book, or really dislike it. One review criticised Harari's attempt to cram 100,000 years into 450 pages, giving only trivial and fleeting anecdotes of some of the most important moments in history. I would like to point out that this book never claims to give an in-depth, comprehensive study of each event through time, as it is entitled 'a brief history', so I dismiss this criticism as I believe the novel does exactly what it professes to.

On the other hand, many people have said that the novel 'changed their life'. I enjoyed it a lot, don't get me wrong, but I wouldn't go as far as to say it has changed me. I definitely learned a lot (for example, did you know that the BBC radio was played in Nazi-occupied Europe during WW2, and that German scientists would detect minute changes in the sounds of Big Ben's ding-dongs in order to determine the British weather, effectively aiding the Luftwaffe?) There were many moments which I found myself in awe at what mankind has done, both the good and the bad. But fundamentally, the book did not offer any momentous revelations that you could not learn elsewhere - it just compiled all the most interesting bits from various sources.

If you want to learn a lot about history through time, and how it fits into the grander picture of where Sapiens could potentially harness their power and knowledge in the future, you will definitely enjoy this book. I found it very hard to put down and was kept thoroughly engaged until the very last page! It was also nice to find photographs and figures dotted throughout the book as a visual aid to the sometimes pretty complex and strenuous language. On the whole, I have come away feeling a whole lot smarter and generally more aware, and would recommend that everyone picks up this book!