A lot of fun to read. It is about crackpot conspiracy theorists, ancient legends and ocultist nazi groups. I especially loved chapter fourteen, which talked about the origin of The Da Vinci Code. It is a pretty funny story. ( )

Od Homérových básní až po současnou science fiction, od svatých písem po komiksy, přes všechna stěžejní literární díla, o nichž jsme se učili (od Gulliverových cest po Alenku v říši divů, od Tolkiena po Milión Marca Pola), literatura po celé věky neustále vytvářela pomyslné a bájné země a promítala do nich všechna ta přání, sny, utopie a noční můry, které v našem omezeném skutečném světě působí příliš rušivě a vyzývavě. Po Dějinách krásy, Dějinách ošklivosti a Bludišti seznamů se Umberto Eco stává naším průvodcem na obrazově bohatě dokumentované cestě po oněch dalekých, neznámých zemích a ukazuje nám jejich obyvatele, vášně, hrdiny, ale především význam, který pro nás mají.
Na cestě, jež je zasvěcená i zábavná, jak ji dokáže uspořádat jen Umberto Eco. Najdeme na ní starověké a středověké texty v bezprostředním sousedství dnešních příběhů, filmy vedle básní, komiksy vedle románů, které ovlivnily vnímavost i založení náš všech. ( )

A fun roundup of fake places that people used to believe passionately existed: Atlantis, the Kingdom of Prester John, the Hollow Earth, Sheba, Shangri-La, etc. There's nothing too deep here — and some chapters are definitely slighter than others — but it's just a fun read. A lot of that has to do with Eco's engaging writing style, which is flat-out enjoyable even in translation. Also useful is that after each chapter rounding up accounts of these legendary lands, Eco reprints excerpts from the primary sources that shaped peoples' beliefs in them. ( )

men where always dreaming of other places, as a better place to be, to live and (not) to die! ( )

Umberto Eco's "Book of Legendary Lands" isn't quite what I thought it would be. Instead of a book full of illustrations from stories such as "The Hobbit" or "Gulliver's Travels" or any one of a thousand, two-thousand-year-old pagan myths, or even today's science fiction, I got the illustrated fantasies of long-dead cartographers, geographers, oceanographers, explorers, astronomers, and an assortment of geniuses and crackpots and others who lived to argue about whether the earth is round or flat and what is it that flies around up there in the night sky, why does it fly around up there and what makes it all act that way? How can anybody get east by going west? Is Greek science better than Christian science?

If you read "The Book of Legendary Lands," you'll find answers (true or false) to all such questions and you'll learn to question stuff you never knew existed. It's amazing. It's funny, and (one way or another) a lot of people used to believe it and some still do. In short, it is the stuff with which bongs are filled.

Buy the book and read it, if you can or if you dare. When you're done, the stuff you've learned will get you invited to lots of card parties that feature lots of food and wine and beer. You could also be chased away from many churches and occasionally run out of town.

You should buy this book and read it without fail. You will never be sorry.

Solomon Sed ( )