Yep, knocked down another book in just a few days. I'm nowhere near my pace from back when I was single (and pre-publishing biz), but it's nice to see some "progress"! As I noted at the end of the last book post, I decided to go for a 3-volume set of Native mythology in the Americas, the first volume being North America.The Mythology of North America is by John Bierhorst, who appears (by all the stuff listed on Amazon) to be a rather prolific author in the genre. I often approach books in the "anthropology" ballpark with some trepidation, as they can be dense and tiresome, this, however (as alluded to in the post's subject) was a "quick read", primarily based on descriptive re-tellings of various myths, along with materials placing the individual myths in their tribal, cultural, and geographical contexts. On this latter point, it was quite interesting seeing the various tribal/cultural groupings mapped out for the various regions. Aside from this, what to say about the book? One either likes reading myths or one doesn't ... I found it entertaining and informative, and was relieved that the presentation was as straight forward as it was.
Once again, if this sounds of interest to you, you're in luck, as the "used" links on Amazon (for the out-of-print hardcover edition) have this going for as little as $1.01 ... such a deal! While I was able to dig up some on-line cover graphics for this (from the paperback edition), I opted to scan the dust jacket of the hardcover, since it was a whole lot cooler looking (which, of course, means I'll have to do this for the other books in the series as well).
Next up (and already sitting out by the "reading chair" in the living room) is Bierhorst's book on South American mythology. Hopefully that will also only take a few days to plow through. Oh, by the way ... I might have a glimmer of hope for getting some traction in that Voices of the First Day book that I've been stuck in ... I'm about 17 pages shy of completing "Part One" which seems to be the author's theoretical (gobbledygook) underpinnings, and the subsequent sections seem to be more objective and less delusional ... I still have a couple of hundred pages to get through in that one, but I'm now hoping that the rest of it won't be as painful as the read's been so far!
