From the Bookshelf: A History of the World in 100 Objects

When I visited London, England a few years ago, I made a point of going to the British Museum. In looking up information on the artifacts of world culture on display there (I particularly wanted to see the Rosetta Stone and the Lewis Chessmen, but there were plenty of things I was pleased just to happen on), I picked up there had been a BBC radio series a few years before that had selected one hundred objects from the museum and used them to tell a history of the world. Copies of the companion book were displayed in the museum shops, but I only had so much spending money on me and had already packed my luggage pretty full. Instead, I eventually managed to download and listen to all hundred fifteen-minute instalments of the series, which made for an interesting but time-consuming tour (although probably still less time-consuming than going back to London). With thoughts of revisiting the history in a somewhat different way but saving time doing that, I finally ordered a copy of museum director Neil McGregor's book from my area bookstore.
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