Even if, like me, you have no specialised interest in history as such but just enjoy good books, this tome is a real joy to possess and to savour slowly chapter by fascinating chapter; at more than 700 pages it certainly can't be read overnight. I don't know if there is a paperback version available, but even if there were I would still suggest buying the hardcover version. As I told a friend that I recently recommended this book to, it is the kind of book that really deserves the Victorian treatment - to be bound in leather with gold tooling on the cover, and then to sit on your bookshelf waiting to be taken down again at intervals to be read again and again. Neil MacGregor's really unique approach to describing mankind's history is to take 100 objects from the British Museum (some of them very elaborate and artistic creations but others very simple, everyday objects that have usually survived just through chance) and to put these objects firmly in their social and historical context, using them as the springboard to show us the much wider picture of life in those times. This is an exciting story that deserves to be well told, and MacGregor's beautiful, intelligent prose helps to add to our pleasure. As an avid bibliophile it is gratifying to still be able to buy real books that you can hold and SMELL, and with real pages to turn, rather than having to depend on the "convenience" of the ubiquitous Kindle or i-Pad!