The most satisfying feeling in the world is when all of a sudden, everything clicks. It's the feeling when all the information just learned is suddenly arranged in that perfect way that makes understanding all the moving parts and how they fit together easy. What makes a book truly great is its ability to engage the reader in a way that allows them to finally see the point of the book. A World Lit Only by Fire by William Manchester, a lengthy summary of the medieval times and how they came to an end, does not deliver. The author makes several points in his “Author’s Note” about what the purpose of the book is, and in doing so, directs the reader in a certain direction regarding his theme and along the way, confuses the reader as well as never gets to his own points.
Interestingly, Manchester organized his book in the most effective way to get his several points across, which is intriguing, considering how poorly he did in the end. He begins with an “Author’s Note” which is concluded with several ideas on which he bases his book off of (XVII). The actual book is then divided into three …show more content…
In the end, he did at least get the main points of the history of it all. “The Medieval Mind” explains: “Intellectual life had vanished from Europe,” (3). In “The Shattering”, “But Luther knew he could be more effective… if he addressed his people in simple German…” (166), he tells of a turn of events that lead to the Renaissance and lastly, Magellan himself is explained in “One Man Alone”: “He had never before been reckless, imprudent, careless, or forgetful...But he had not been a soldier of Christ then,” (276). All of which explain the most simple main ideas of each section, going only into the history of it all, which, is mostly widely known. However, once again, his point was never
Interestingly, Manchester organized his book in the most effective way to get his several points across, which is intriguing, considering how poorly he did in the end. He begins with an “Author’s Note” which is concluded with several ideas on which he bases his book off of (XVII). The actual book is then divided into three …show more content…
In the end, he did at least get the main points of the history of it all. “The Medieval Mind” explains: “Intellectual life had vanished from Europe,” (3). In “The Shattering”, “But Luther knew he could be more effective… if he addressed his people in simple German…” (166), he tells of a turn of events that lead to the Renaissance and lastly, Magellan himself is explained in “One Man Alone”: “He had never before been reckless, imprudent, careless, or forgetful...But he had not been a soldier of Christ then,” (276). All of which explain the most simple main ideas of each section, going only into the history of it all, which, is mostly widely known. However, once again, his point was never