Customer Reviews

Ancient Legends of Gems and Jewels

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a nice little book; a quick and easy read, it still manages to pass along a fairly large amount of information in a lively manner. It seems as though the authors must have researched a great deal of material, and carefully distilled it down to a clear, easy-to-read summary of legends of the more popular gems and jewels. Not at all stuffy or scholarly, the book still manages to educate, in a nice, easy, entertaining manner.

It is fairly limited in terms of amount of information about the various stones, but if you take it for what it offers, which is a breezy, friendly overview of the legends various societies have had about gems, it's well worth the effort. My only real problem with the book was that I personally felt I wanted more depth and more breadth, but that is not to detract from the nice job the authors did on the book.

I was quite disappointed--annoyed--with this book. It's actually a 'booklet,' almost a pamphlet, offering only a brief, at times breathless, recounting of this or that legend re a given stone, accompanied with silly, juvenile drawings. Reading level should be listed as 'pre-teen.'

I bought this hoping to add to my book collection of gemstone lore. I found it lacking in substance. It's a good beginning book for young readers interested in gemstones, but other than that, not that useful.