Artcurious

I had never heard of the ArtCurious podcast, but I find art history fascinating and hoped to learn a few things from this book. Unfortunately, I would not recommend it. It had lots of potential, particularly with regard to content, but that's about it.

My biggest gripe was with the author's voice and long-windedness. I can't believe her editor let her get away with so much. It feels like reading one long blog post where the writer needs to hit a certain word count for the sake of search engine optimization. She has no concept of being concise and manages to go on and on without adding substance. Honestly, I skimmed parts of it.

With regard to voice, she includes her own plucky commentary alongside the content, but it does not add value to the book. It feels like she is trying to make the content more approachable, or maybe she is insecure about whether or not her readers will really care about what she's writing, but in any case it takes impact away from the actual art history. (Particularly when she ends big revelations with “Gross!” Or “Sorry!” Or “Pun intended!” in parentheses.)

I can see the whole thing working as a podcast, but it needed to be re-envisioned to be a book. It could have worked with more (better quality) pictures, and about half the amount of words. It's too bad because I am the perfect audience for this book as someone who did not study art history but has always found it fascinating.