Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs : A Practical Guide - A Step-by-Step Approach to Learning Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs

Rating:
Summary: Great guide for enthusiasts
Review: Kamrin's Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs is a great introduction to the subject, and is designed to be eminently usable. This is the ideal book for someone who has time to really sit down and work with it, someone who has always wanted to know what it might be like to actually read hieroglyphs.
The ideal audience is a college student or even a high school student who has always wanted to know more about Egyptology than what he or she could get on the Discovery Channel. While it would not replace a year of university-level language study, it is not designed to do so.
The exercises are clear and doable (and there is a section of answers at the back!), and each section builds carefully on the section before. It is a beautiful book as well, nicely designed, with clear readable font and lovely coloured illustrations.
I have a recommendation, however -- you may not want to actually write in the book itself -- the paper is too nice quality for a workbook, which this is in a way. I recommend that you get yourself a notebook and copy out the exercises as you attempt them (a good way to really familiarize yourself with hieroglyphs), or photocopy the more complicated ones and work them on a photocopied page (you may well want to keep the book in better condition than erasing pencil or writing in ink may allow). Otherwise, this is a great book, and would be a lovely gift for someone who is really into ancient Egypt and ready to move beyond the really pretty picture books to see what Egyptology might really be like.