Well, it‘s enjoyable: funny, scathing, occasionally brutal and moving. Undermines any romanticism of the horror of war and exposes the essential barbarity of being a soldier, even when you‘re on the right side. But I honestly don‘t see the really big deal. I would certainly recommend it, but I don‘t see why it‘s *so* highly thought of.

First Rorty I've read. Some interesting stuff, but he takes pragmatism too far for me. I can buy that (paraphrasing) talk of rocks and quarks is of the same nature as talk of texts and history, but I can't buy that they actually have the same claims to reality. He takes continental philosophy (Derrida, Heidigger, Husserl) seriously, too, which I just find hard to do.

If you can imagine an Arabic Tristram Shandy written by—to mimic the synonym-obsessed style of the book—an intellectual and an innovator, a smartypants and a smut-peddler, an obscene lexicographer and a lecherous obsessive, a lover of lists and a lyricist of love, then you will be somewhere near conceptualizing this anarchic and irreverent novel. Filthy, brilliant, funny, and sometimes quite touching.

What to say? Probably my favourite novel, read more times than I can count. This book has it all: murderous monks, sex, sex with monks, and learnèd disquisitions on the poverty of Christ. Ridiculously erudite but also simply a rollicking good story.
There are some rather over-indulgent descriptive passages and a (to me) massively over-long dream sequence, but other than that it's a corker from start to finish.

What to say? Probably my favourite novel, read more times than I can count. This book has it all: murderous monks, sex, sex with monks, and learnèd disquisitions on the poverty of Christ. Ridiculously erudite but also simply a rollicking good story.
There are some rather over-indulgent descriptive passages and a (to me) massively over-long dream sequence, but other than that it's a corker from start to finish.

Bailed. Frege is dry and difficult, and this book does little to alleviate that. Worsened by dreadful formatting on the Kindle such that quoted passages are indistinguishable from the main text, making it a painful read.

Enjoyable coverage of how Christianity spread through Europe. Unlike other books I've read on this topic, it is very socially-oriented, with little discussion of institutions or theology except inasfar as they have an impact upon the social acceptance of the religion. Particularly interesting for its coverage of "micro-Christianities": the varying interpretations and uses to which Christianity was put within the pre-existing social structure.