Full of interesting information on superstitions, with an extensive bibliography. But the book isn't very well organized. It would be very difficult to find any particular bit again if I wanted to re-read about it or discuss it with anyone. Nor did I see any footnote references connecting any tidbit with source material, so it left me wondering about credibility. ( )

This book got lost in my inbox, and then when I found it, I was somehow I was imagining it was a work of fiction. Instead, when I finally opened it, I found it be a well-researched book about the tokens and practices still associated with magic ritual up to the present day. The nine chapters reveal contemporary situations and relics of magic, both physical and linguistic, with interesting stories going still a little further than many popular explanations. One of the most interesting of the author's efforts is to show how widespread the roots of magical practice are, showing the links between ancient and modern and between cultures of all places and ages. I think I will find it useful as for quick look-ups when in those moments when you suddenly realize you have said something ancient and magical without really ever having thought about it before.

I did not read this book through. It might be a good place to start if you want a compendium of magical thinking and practices, but it's so poorly organized and presented that it becomes merely a list that bounces back and forth through poorly specified time and place. The writer is presented as a past "lecturer in history of literature, as well as medieval languages, history, and cultural studies," but the "various universities" in her academic history are not named.

The first chapter promises a lot but sets the stage for the sweeping generalizations to follow: "Magic, as a protective and procuring agent, has existed universally in all cultures since ancient times." And almost immediately the caroming begins. In a reasonably useful discussion of sympathetic magic, we're swept in the space of a page through examples from 21st century Peru to England in an unspecified past tense, but "especially popular in Scarborough," to 17th-century Ireland. Only the Scarborough example is footnoted, and it's a two-step process to identify a source in the bibliography.

I read the three chapters that interested me most and picked up a few bits of information, but I'll need to find alternate sources if I plan to use them in any way. ( )

This book had the potential to be very interesting. Stories of how beliefs and traditions came to be are often quite enjoyable. This book however was severely lacking. It was monotonous and boring and not something I would recommend. ( )

I won a copy of this ebook from the LibraryThing giveaway. Educational and many interesting facts and historical information given. I would have rated it higher but there were also dry, boring and repetitive parts as well. ( )