Sacred trash : the lost and found world of the Cairo Geniza

This was a fascinating look at the scholars who discovered, collected, and cataloged the Cairo Geniza. Otherwise unknown to me, a Geniza is a hidden room inside a synagogue where worn out paper with the written word is cached. Never thrown away, just stored. In this case, for millennia. Geniza refers to both the room and the contents thereof. This book functions primarily as a biological study of the researchers. The subject matter of the Geniza documents is presented as an overview because the contents are just so vast. As might be expected in modern anthropological study, it is the personal letters about the mundane that are the most Illuminating. Mothers missing their sons. Drinking at a wedding. Kids asking for money. The book is long and dry at times, but I'd recommend it if you're interested in Judaical study or medieval studies as the bulk of the information recovered is from that time period. Very well written.