Listen: you kinda can<\/em> judge a book by its cover. If you read enough books and are familiar with the trends of your time, you can sometimes know what you\u2019re in for. This book had a cover that, in-store, made me think, \u201cthis might be trash.\u201d Another thought kept entering my brain, though: \u201cyou\u2019re in Mexico City<\/em>, if this book is good, it\u2019ll be a great<\/em> trip memento!\u201d The contents of the book were hidden by shrink wrap. No, I did not pull out my phone and Google the title. Google is untrustworthy. Anyway, sorry to spoil the next paragraph, but this is the worst, most disappointing book I\u2019ve read in the history of this blog. There\u2019s maybe one<\/em>, maybe two other books in the history of this blog that I have hated, but I always try to be nice if the author is living and it seemed like they tried. This It wasn\u2019t the first mention of \u201chalf-breed\u201d that roused my suspicion. No, it was before that, when the text was ordering of civilizations, the discussion of Nahua people as \u201cbarbarous\u201d and that some \u201ccivilizing force,\u201d like the Tolecs, was what kept them from remaining cavemen or whatever. No mention of calipers, but some mentions of skull shapes. <\/p> Goodreads seems to suggest this book<\/a> is a cut-and-paste mashup of 19th century texts. A lot of the syntax and diction support this premise. Are the stories and myths themselves cool enough to plow through the messy text? Sort of. I mean, yes<\/em>\u2014Mesoamerican and pre-Columbian American stories, myths, and histories are endlessly fascinating. I just kept getting the feeling like I couldn\u2019t totally trust what I was reading. Obviously, I\u2019m not up on the subject matter enough to cross-reference previous knowledge, or else I wouldn\u2019t have bought this book. Idk, history is really tough sometimes, because you never know when a white supremacist is gonna pop out of the bushes of the paragraphs. This time, I got got. No amount of pyramids of human skulls will get me hooked on bad history. That was actually the first red flag\u2014some people absolutely relish<\/em> bringing up Mesoamerican human sacrifice, and those people should be avoided. Should\u2019ve listened to instinct. <\/p> What I don\u2019t regret: giving Ghandi Books in Mexico City however many pesos this was. I\u2019ll spend all kinds of money in Mexico City, that place rules. <\/p> LINKS! <\/strong><\/p> No musical intro this week because there are a lot of YouTube videos. I want to do some fun myth stuff, and I want to give some Indigenous Americans some voices in this column, since I really don\u2019t feel like Aztec Myths Generally Edited by Jake Jackson, No Not The Guy Who Did That Kinda Self-Indulgent Movie That Was On All The Podcast Ads For A Month<\/a>, No Not The Singer-Songwriter, No Not The Boxer, Jake Jackson<\/em>. <\/p> Am I gonna talk about Crash Course <\/em>again? You bet I am! Love Crash Course<\/em>. Here\u2019s a link to the entire World Mythology playlist<\/a>. Here\u2019s a video on ancient floods. Love an ancient flood: <\/p>author<\/s> editor is living, but I think even he might agree that he didn\u2019t try. I\u2019m talking, of course, about Aztec Myths<\/em>, \u201cGenerally Edited\u201d by Jake Johnson. <\/p>![\"Aztec](\"https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/8652d7ed-ac3c-41e8-af50-ff60f4080504_3024x4032.heic\")
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