The Little Book of World Mythology: A Pocket Guide To Myths And Legends

by Hannah Bowstead

This pocket guide offers readers an engaging and accessible introduction to the major world mythologies, exploring their origins, foundational stories and key mythological figures.

Step into a world of gods, heroes and monsters
 
Throughout history, mythologies have been fundamental to societies and cultures across the world. They are the collected stories of a people – the fascinating folk tales and the epic legends that shape the history and the beliefs of whole civilizations.
 
Learn how the Greeks won the ten-year Trojan war, how the Norse god Thor got his mighty hammer, and why the Aztecs made a daily human sacrifice to the sun god, Huitzilopochtli.
 
This is the perfect starting point for anyone looking to enrich and expand on their understanding of world history, religion, arts, literature and culture.
 
Discover the captivating stories behind the following Aboriginal, Aztec, Celtic, Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, Hindu, Incan, Japanese, Māori, Mayan, Mesopotamian, Norse, Roman.
 

Genres: Mythology, Nonfiction

128 pages, Paperback

Published October 4, 2022

Reviews

[Dani · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love mythology, Ancient Greek especially, and this is a really good introduction to a lot of different mythologies. There's also a list of further reading if you find yourself wanting to know more.

Academic books often turn the most interesting subjects into something that can easily put you to sleep, but this is written in a colloquial way with a nice dose of humour, and gives modern examples and comparisons too.

[tammy *ੈ✩ · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the name of the book already says, 'the little book of world mythology' sums up very vaguely, the myths and beliefs of different places of our world. Informations are simplified for everyone to understand and logically very much shortened.

Due to the book including small comments (like this) or some kind of funny annotations that make the book rather subjective than objective; this book felt like sitting down with a friend who tells you about many of the different world mythologies!
This is a nice read if you wanna see what the main aspects of some mythologies are. It will kind of give you a direction, but of course no overview of the full stories.

[Binnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a good book if you want to get general knowledge of each mythology and it shares the main stories of the mythologies.

[Aya ᥫ᭡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book offers exactly what the title says. It’s easy to read and understand. I really recommend it to those who are looking for a great introduction to learn a little bit about every mythology and at the same time learn which stories they’d like to dive into even more.

[M.andthebooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rezension: (kann Spoiler enthalten)

Ich liebe Mythologie im Allgemeinen ja, besonders die griechische und römische. Wobei ich auch über die nordische Mythologie immer wieder gerne mal was lese.
Weil ich auch für zukünftige Buchprojekte meinerseits gerne recherchiere, wollte ich das Buch als kleine Zusammenfassung, die mir teils auch als Einstieg in andere, in der Literatur weniger bekannte/genutzte Literaturen dienen sollte. So kann ich vielleicht noch ein wenig Inspiration bekommen.
Wenn man das Buch als Zusammenfassung nutzt, dann ist es dafür auch sicher sehr gut geeignet. Es gibt einen groben Überblick über die wichtigsten Themen, Mythen und Figuren, die eine Rolle spielen, sowie eine kleine historische Einordnung. Für tiefgehende Recherchen sollte man andere, ausführlichere Literatur nutzen, aber um einen ersten Eindruck zu bekommen, oder sich nur kurz nochmal einen Überblick über die grobe Materie zu verschaffen, ist dieses Buch hier perfekt geeignet. Ich werde es also mit Sicherheit das ein oder andere Mal für meine Recherchen nochmal zur Hand nehmen.

4,5 Sterne

[Harris Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 / 5

Good intro to mythology but wished it went into a bit more detail. Quite a few stories felt watered down so much that they were missing key details that we researched more about.

Images would have been good too.

Great for the car - mythology mornings with Nick.

[Mackenzie · Rating 2 out of 5]

super goofy book about mythology, made me giggle quite often this queen is so real plus it's nice and short and brief

[Ignacio Vega · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun little thing! It was specially interesting to see how many concepts are repeated across cultures. Sky father married to his sister the earth goddess, a great flood, kings descending from gods, fear of monsters, dragon and snakes… it’s all very human. I was also fascinated from all the various creation myths, from how local geography and climate affects the kind of stories people come up with, and from how some cultures made an effort to explain things that needed no explanation, like, why are the crow’s feathers black? I do feel it was a little held back by being so little, a few of the stories could’ve done with just a bit more detail, and a few others seemed to be just a bunch of names that all sound the same, but that’s alright. It’s interesting, and it’s written in a tongue-in-cheek kinda way that makes it a light and easy read.

[Dean Dawson · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a fun quick overview of mythologies around the world, only referencing the most well-known. I appreciate it is only providing a brief mention of some stories of different mythologies but more could have been included if the pop culture references and funny little comments had been avoided. They probably add something for some readers but I found it frustrating when there was reference to further stories that felt like they'd been cut to make room for the comments.

It is a good introduction for those wanting to read in to world mythologies but I am left thinking it could have been better

[David Tagliaferri · Rating 3 out of 5]

My fav god is now Axomamma, in an god of potatoes. Ok book, I liked it because it is a bit like Norse Mythology by Gaimen, but they do more of the World. Not quite as well written, and they dont have the length to go into the same death, but a cheeky book of 5 minutes stories about ancient Mythologie.

[Julia Van Vliet · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are like me and were a bit too much into mythology growing up, you’ll probably know most of the myths described in this novel. Still, it offers a witty, amusing take on the old stories and was a good read to me.

[rosa :) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I <3 mythology!

[Josie Flanagan · Rating 3 out of 5]

For what it is the book tells the story's with comedy though feeling rushed at some times and some story's not being told fully

[Tommy Hurrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly good summary of world beliefs, never really dives deep enough into any of them to pique the interest of new mythology nerds nor provided anything new for massive nerds but is fun

[Samantha Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read from various cultures but with more modern wording

[Arya G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I lacked a lot of knowledge on mythology in general and this book made it easy and fun for me to close the gap a bit. Would recommend :)

[Angela Ferrero · Rating 3 out of 5]

Demasiado millenial

[Juliette · Rating 5 out of 5]

This funny little book is a perfect subway read and a great reminder of how absolutely BONKERS humans are and always have been 😌

[Adelaide · Rating 3 out of 5]

The mythology itself is interesting, but unfortunately I wasn’t a fan of the author’s embellishments.

[Nati · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es un buen libro para tener una toma de contacto con la mitología. Me han gustado mucho las referencias a la cultura pop de estos últimos años.

[Rachel Byrne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute little pocket-book if you're a lover of Mythology 🪽🐲
I love Myths and Legends, particularly Greek Mythology, and this is a good introduction to mythological stories across the world.

It is vague and only includes short snippets of stories - but is that not the point of a pocket-book? It is also explained in the first part that there are far too many stories to put into one book, so this was kept to the favourites. I like that it isn't too complicated (as mythology usually is), making it an enjoyable read.

Favourite chapter: Egyptian Mythology

[evernell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very nice read. This book gives you a general idea of mythologies from all over the world. Although it's not detailed and therefore not the best if you're looking for very specific information, it's good if you're just curious and want to learn something new. And also the author uses modern language and humour so it doesn't feel like you're reading a textbook.