Let me start with what I liked about Sarum. I learned a lot from this book. I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to the history of England - or the history of any country really - and this book was a good overview of England beginning with prehistoric times. It spans a huge number of years - and I wish I had begun a book of centuries when I started reading it. It would be really cool to begin keeping track of what happened when. I liked that he followed a handful of families throughout the years - beginning with prehistoric people and ending in the 1980s.

But - I didn't love this book. It's essentially a book of short stories - some much shorter than others. The pages are dense with words, and many times the stories felt disjointed. And to be honest, there were times that I was just plain bored. I had to put it down for a month because I was just bored with it and didn't want to keep reading.

Overall, I'm glad I read it. I feel smarter because of it. I'd probably recommend it to other people if they were interested in British history or liked really long sagas. Maybe that means I should give it 4 stars, but I think I'll stick with 3 1/2.