The Book of Lilith

Rating:
Summary: nice pictures, not so great research
Review: Although I do credit this book with whetting my appetite to research further into Lilith and I did enjoy reading it when I first started it, after I did more research myself, I realized how flawed Koltuv's research is. She makes assertions while giving no evidence (such as stating that Lilith appears in Germanic mythology, which she doesn't), and she throws a lot of non-Lilith myths, stories, etc., that are similar to Lilith but treats them as if they are actually directly connected instead of just being "archetypally" connected. She also makes the usual claim that Lilith was originally a goddess, and, per usual, gives no evidence for this assertion. This is an OK intro to Lilith book and is a fun read, but do your serious research into Lilith elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent religious book
Review: Read the book with the title in mind, "The Book of Lilith." While the book touches on history, mythology and psychology, the book is more of a primer for a modern religion. In this respect, it could be a five-star book. However, this book presents itself as a book of the history of the Lilith figure, and in that respect there are much better works.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent religious book
Review: Read the book with the title in mind, "The Book of Lilith." While the book touches on history, mythology and psychology, the book is more of a primer for a modern religion. In this respect, it could be a five-star book. However, this book presents itself as a book of the history of the Lilith figure, and in that respect there are much better works.

Rating:
Summary: Kinda Sorta Maybe
Review: This is a pretty good book - I agree with the previous reviewer who said the author makes too many assertations that have no apparent root in fact - this is true. The writing itself can get confusing and doubles back on itself, but that is to be expected. I think it centers a little too much on psychology rather than the myth itself. Still, I did enjoy reading it (and LOVED the illustrations) and I am interested in reading more about Lilith.

Rating:
Summary: A Phycological Look.
Review: When I bought this book I was hoping for some information in the diffrent myths and beliefs about Lilith. Instead I found a phycological book about the view of women and how that was seen in the stories of Lilith. A great read and one I would suggest you invest in. But remember this is a book about all of women and not just Lilith.

Rating:
Summary: A Phycological Look.
Review: When I bought this book I was hoping for some information in the diffrent myths and beliefs about Lilith. Instead I found a phycological book about the view of women and how that was seen in the stories of Lilith. A great read and one I would suggest you invest in. But remember this is a book about all of women and not just Lilith.

Rating:
Summary: Worst book that I've read in decades.
Review: When I picked up this book I was hoping for a summary of research about Lilith or at least a good starting place for such. I would have accepted a book that was based on psycholoigal archetypes, or on myths and folklore, or one on historical Jewish Mysticism, or even one on modern ideas in a magico-religious community about the subject. What I read was a sloppy mixture of all of the above which was in my opinion poorly written.

The mishmosh of "factoids" about Lilith were almost always presented without context. Which ever of the above categories a "fact" or offered perspective was presented- its category was not exposed (if at all) until after the annecdote was narrated, which of course interfered with the way the reader understands or digests the information. Sometimes facts of one type were in a chapter that led the reader to believe it was another type.

For instance, many of theses anecdotes which seemed to be folklore, were actually dream sequences from the psychologist author's analysands. Therefore they were dreams that people had that were Lilith-like, and not details about a real figure of myth, or a historically researchable topic of any kind. Many times the story presented was a folklore-like sequence from a play or story. Usually there was no contextual information about the author or dreamer and what exposure to the myth that person may have had.

These factoids, annecdotes, fictional snippets, and dreams (which the author may have labled Lilith archetypes but it is unclear if the dreamer/analysands would have done so...)are presented without any clearly articulated argument, so the book proceeds without a point, and with incredibly sloppy "evidense".

I wouldn't reccomend this book to anyone, and I don't want to give it even one star.

The only vaulable points of interest that I found in the book were the photos of amulets against Lilith or Lillith like "night hags" and the names of the books used to research her topic. ( I don't believe that a bibliography was used either.)