A Dictionary of Creation Myths (Oxford Paperback Reference) (Oxford Paperback Reference S)

Maybe this book will seem all right to people who use it in the way they would an actual dictionary or encyclopedia, i.e. to occasionally look up a scrap of information. Having read it from cover to cover, however, I am left with the impression that the authors just gathered a handful of sources and indiscriminately copied down the myth of any tribe or culture they could find the way the original authors had compiled them, without any kind of cross-referencing, completing, structuring or harmonizing. This results in some entries offering a wealth of information, while others barely contain any at all. I also got the impression that the book covers a great number of small American Indian tribes (albeit in not much detail) for the sole reason that there was a handy source available, while leaving out a number of equally or more important cultures elsewhere. This being a very vast subject with a rather limited audience, maybe the authors or editors did not find it (financially) worth investing the time needed to do a thorough job, but I find it hard to believe there's nothing better out there. I'll keep looking for a better alternative and advise you to do the same.

Interesting book some minor factual errors but overall a good buy

This really is a wonderful book containing a wealth of detailed information on world mythologies. It comprehensively covers familiar ground, but there is also much here that was new to me, such as the sketchy Celtic creation of the earth. It brings invaluable insight into how different cultures in different times and places have explained the world's origins and puts it into context by quirkily including the Big Bang theory. But make no mistake, this is definitely no creationist tome and is instead a thorough reference work of cultural perceptions.