Julian D. Richards

Bill’s Bytes is a fun, comical, coming of age story of two young men in their early twenties who seem very different on the outside looking in. The story starts by showing Bill’s life as an adopted Asian American growing up in a rather traditional religious family. He loves to bake and on a whim sets up a website showcasing his talents and creating a catering business he calls “Bill’s Bytes.” Although many characters throughout the book critique this name, it’s unique spin on his two passions coding and baking. This name later pays off when a computer software company wants him to cater their big event in Austin, Minnesota. The only problem, he lives in Texas.

While attempting to rent a van for his last minute road trip, Bill then meets Garrett, a small time musician who needs a van to get to Minnesota, the same state Bill needs to get to for his new catering gig.

Overall, it’s an interesting and creative take on the simplistic concept of a road trip. The book was not at all what I expected, and has a lot more outrageous elements to it, which makes it that much more interesting and wild. A misunderstanding turns their already odd roadtrip into one that becomes both outrageous and dangerous at times.

It was a fun, unexpected read with elements of finding yourself, race, and learning to discover who you are and where you want to go in life.… (meer)

I suppose it's inevitable that a series like the Very Short Introductions should be rather hit-or-miss. Coming from Cunliffe's introduction to the Celts, which I found to be very well-written, this volume on the Vikings was more difficult to get through. No doubt Richards possess a great amount of knowledge about the subject, but he's perhaps not the right person to distill it into a short 140 page volume for beginners.

Agreeing with some of the other reviews, this felt much more like a survey of archaeological finds relating to the Vikings---Richards goes on for pages about different excavations and the objects found within them. Yet in most cases one doesn't really come to understand which of those objects are significant and indicate a Scandinavian presence in that area, and what kind of continuity exists between Scandinavian expansion across different areas. There's a noticeable lack of the kind of overarching discussion I enjoyed in The Celts: Richards occasionally makes the scant effort to summarize the finds, but these bits come off as half-effort transitions to the next chapters more than anything else. The result is that one doesn't get much of a sense of who the Vikings were or of what their daily lives consisted, only with what they might have been buried. Nor, though he offhandedly mentions them a few times, does one come to understand how reality relates to the Scandinavian sagas.

The final two chapters were the strongest, I felt, in that I received something of an overall picture of the Greenland and North American colonies, and the discussion on how Viking identity has been modified and used in more recent times is exceptionally interesting.

As usual, the list of further readings is well appreciated---hopefully those may lead to some more focused introductions. Nonetheless, this book has increased my interest in the subject, and I'm glad I read it.… (meer)