Reading books have been one of my favorite pastimes since I was a kid. I have not always had a chance to read regularly but the pandemic has slowed things down enough to provide an opening. While I have a large library of books, some of which are still on my reading list, my favorite current method is on my Amazon Kindle. It is there that I read a book I highly recommend.

I recently read the Second Edition of Charles C. Mann’s masterpiece 1491. It is entertaining and thoroughly researched examination of the Americas before the arrival of Christopher Columbus. The Second Edition adds new insights and studies to fill out the original groundbreaking tome. It convincingly details the thriving societies that were in place when Columbus stumbled onto these shores and the devastation that followed when European diseases, for which the native populations had no defenses or immunity to, as it took a huge toll on those people. It also debunks the romanticized myth of an Edenic indigenous people who actually had a huge hand in twisting nature to their needs, though certainly with less detrimental effects than those that followed. All in all it is engaging and instructive at the same time. Highly recommended. Read a book!

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