I was told to read this book about five years ago and began reading it two years ago. It took that long to finish, not because it isn’t interesting, but because I was very distracted and it is nonfiction so it’s easy to put down for a time. If you happen to have a degree in anthropology the first part of the book will be repetitive and a bit dull, but once you get past that this book is amazing. The scope of understanding why was it that Europe was able to take over the rest of the world in a extremely non-racist manner is incredible. This book won the Pulitzer Prize for a very good reason and everyone who wants to understand the history of the world should read this.