Negative Positive
Title: Tedious with Gratuitous Obscurity
Review: I wanted to enjoy this book. The premise is interesting. The author is fascinated by Ibn Battutah and his travels. He sets off to follow in IB's footsteps. The author draws references from many bizarre sources presumably to help clarify or explain some of his experiences, but what it ends up being is gratuitous obscurity. I carefully sought out his references, but I did not feel rewarded. I noted with interest how often the author clarified that he was not married and did not wish to be and that he is not a Muslim and did not wish to be. These two issues arose many times. I was interested in the Eye of Joy and a couple of his jokes, but overall I felt the author was trying to impress the reader with his wide knowledge of obscurity rather than share an experience with his reader.
Is the review positive or negative? 