I have a confession to make: I got halfway through this book and almost gave up. Then I got strategic.

It's not that it's bad. It isn't. It's excellent. It's just heavy, and not in an "oh, this is so challenging!" sense, though it's that too. I mean it's a book of monstrous size and substantial weight. I like to take a book to bed every night and read for a bit before I go to sleep, but even propped up on multiple pillows this behemoth is hard on the wrists. "Please let there be an e-copy," I muttered to myself, going back to the library catalogue. I didn't find one. I did find this: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/785e5ea7-9973-4686-a6ec-6aa8682e6eae. Then I went to the publisher's website to corroborate.

After the critical success of this, the illustrated history, Bridget Williams Books sensibly decided to produce a paperback version, sans pictures. As they say on the paperback version page of their website, "the full text of the big hardback is available in a reader-friendly edition." I got this edition from the library too. (Yes, I borrowed both at the same time. I was determined to finish, and I was worried that if I stuck to the hardback version, one of the pillows might dislodge and then the hardback would fall on me and break a rib. Slight exaggeration. Very slight.) I took the paperback to bed and read the text, then once I was done I'd go to my desk, usually the next day, and read through the photos, diagrams, and graphs of the illustrated version. It's a beautiful book, the illustrated version. It deserves all the accolades it got.

It just weighs a fucking ton. Hence, I read both.