I had known virtually nothing about these and thus everything I now know on this subject came from this book. I liked the format of this book much more than the Usborne Greek Myths and Legends that I had read before it. This read much more like a saga...a group of stories that are connected and organized chronologically and by realm. Norse mythology is much different from the Greek in that the Greek gods were interested in love and having children as well as the jealousy deriving from such philandering. Norse Gods are interested in fighting, bragging and bullying. Thor, shown as a hero in modern comic books as movies, was just a mean bully. Loki, portrayed as a villain, was, at least at the beginning of the saga, just a clever trickster. His evolution into a villain is explained by the rest of the gods bullying ways. I kind of sided with Loki until the end, when he went overboard. Informative book with good stories and great illustrations.
It occurred to me that I have several "coffee table" and reference books in areas of my interest that are just too large to carry around with me all the time. They are also too heavy and cumbersome for me to hold for the long periods of time required for reading. But, they really make perfect bathroom books in that they contain short stories or article which can be read in snippets of time. The next of these I will tackle in the bathroom is Broadway Musicals, 101 of the Greatest Shows of All Time by Ken Bloom and Frank Vlastnik.
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