My wife and I have really gotten into learning more about the world and societies during dinner time. We listen together and review the cd that we just listened to and talk for hours upon the subject with some pretty heafty conversation and contraversy. We could not wait to listen to the cd's every night. Collapse did the opposite. My wife and I just finished listening to CD 2 of 8. I fell asleep on both CD's! I was fully rested on both of the disks on 2 seperate nights. Good thing I was not listening in the car. My wife started surfing the net on the second cd, not because it sparked any thought but more over boredom. If you are not a professor of palm trees or a scientist of pollen dating, you will find this book absolutely boring!