Book Review: 1421, The Year China Discovered the World

It's been a while since my last book review. (Omg, it was in May!) I took far too long to read this book despite one fifth of it being appendices and post scripts. Why? Because it was too chunky to carry around! The free London papers made adequate company for the daily commute.

I made a mental note to read this book after one of my patients mentioned that it was fascinating. I admit, I'd seen it in the stores but never bothered to read the blurb so I had assumed that it was a silly, fancy medieval Chinese love story. How wrong I was. This book is essentially a thesis choc-full of evidence to support the theory that Chinese explorers navigated the globe well before their European counterparts. It goes further to say that the European 'discoverers' of the new land actually had a map to guide them.

I admit, being a lay-person in cartography and marine navigation, it took a bit of effort to immerse myself in the book. I could feel myself zoning out when there was a mention of 'knots', 'longitude' and the like. I have a loose grasp on such concepts (I'm sure which can be taught), however it is something that I have minimal interest.

It will help to have a desire to learn and this book will definitely appeal to those who enjoy documentaries. Being born a geek, I have always wondered why the hell do Eskimos and Native Americans look Chinese. This book sheds me the (possible) light! There is evidence in the form of linguistics and DNA analysis to suggest that the Chinese had settled (fairly recently in evolutionary terms) amongst natives in parts all over the world.

Are you telling me this Eskimo couldn't pass for Chinese? Actually, I think Eskimo is non-PC. I think I should be saying Inuit.

Or this "Native" American? Hey, I had cousin who was mistaken for one.

Ok, I'm going off on a tangent here. I gotta remember this is a book review, not whether or not I am swayed by the content. There's even an official website whereby members of the public can advise of further evidence to support the underlying claim.

Despite finding the content of this book engrossing, reading it was somewhat of a chore. I couldn't deny the feeling that I was reading someone's VERY LONG (and over the word limit) assignment.

If I am to stick to my Yes/No grading, it's a No for the general public. However, it's a Yes for those who are expressly interested!

I think I have to find another way to grade books which blur the Yes/No grading scale.