Rating: 
Summary: Good info, but Encyclopedia dry....
Review: Don't get me wrong. I like this book. It's got lots of great facts on the daily life of a castle, a few diagrams, and several historical anectdotes. Facts are easily delineated in chapters -- Lord, Lady, Daily Life, etc. I learned a lot of things I didn't know before (like hay being medieval toiletpaper...ew!). The book also focuses primarily on Chepstow, a semi-famous castle in Wales that makes it a bit easier to follow, rather than skipping around from castle to castle.My main problem with this book? Well, first of all, it's a(n) [inexpensive] edition. The paper is poor quality, smells funny, and the ink comes off on my hands. Not great when I have to shell out [money] for a book. The cover is not particularly exciting, and all the interior photographs are almost too dark to make anything out. Very disappointing. The illustrations from this book are also from 11th and 12th century tapestries and illuminations and such, but I can't normally make heads or tails of them, so they don't help the subject matter much. Just personal opinion there. The information, while full of facts, is -- as another reviewer stated -- very dry. I found my mind wandering as well, and I found the only way I could stay focused was to grab a highlighter and underline the interesting historical tidbits. Once I did so, I found plenty to keep my marker working. Overall -- good, informative book, but not for the easily distracted. Cover price is a bit high. Might consider buying it used from z-shops instead.
Rating: 
Summary: CLEAR AND EXCEPTIONALLY ITEMIZED
Review: I think that this is a very rich and serious study about an era of which most of the people wants to know more and nothing seems enough to feed the desire of knowledge. exquisit and fantastic on wich mean through an amazing epoch.
Rating:
Summary: Informative but dry
Review: If you're interested in learning about life in a medieval castle, this book will be helpful. My expectation for a really good book is that it's engaging, regardless of whether it's fiction or non-fiction. I can't say this book really captured my interest enough to read another book by these authors.
Rating: 
Summary: Castles 101
Review: Like the Gies' other works, this book gives a view of the day-to-day life of people in the middle ages for the non-technical reader. In this case, the book's about what it was like to live in a medieval castle. As with their other books, some serious historians will find the book to vague, while many casual readers may find the book to provide too much seemingly trivial detail. For me, it was a great light read, full of fun information. It's also a pretty honest little book. No high prose or deep philosophy here --just the facts. So you want to know what it was like to live in a castle, here are the down and dirty facts. Think of it as Castles 101. Great job! For those interested in a deeper treatment of medieval life, Barbara Tushman's "Through a Distance Mirror" is a really great book.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and useful
Review: Researching? Expanding your horizons just for kicks? This book is excellent by either account. Perhaps what I appreciated most about this book was that it covered a little bit of everything - from history to architecture to military engagements to domestic uses to the people who actually lived in castles. Castles really come to life in this book - as well as the people housed within. There's enough detail in here to satisfy the researcher - but the prose moves along at a trim pace so you won't get bogged down. If you're interested in a specific facet of castles or castle life, you may have to supplement your knowledge elsewhere, but this is a fine overview of castles and their history.
Rating:
Summary: just the facts m'lady
Review: The authors do an excellent job describing, in great detail, the ins and outs of of life in a midieval castle. So, it would be of great use to someone doing a research report for some odd reason on the subject. Otherwise, I found the book unfit for casual reading because its nothing but factoid after factoid, presented without a hint of personality. Basically reads like an owners manual. I was expecting more with a subject this fascinating.
Rating:
Summary: a look into life in the Middle Ages
Review: This book is an excellent start in study the workings of a Castle and how everyday life was in Medieval times. The starts with the Castle arriving in England, and then moves into the various aspects of Castle life, the function of the Lord and Lady, the running of a household, how hunting was not a sport, but a means of survival. It goes into how a knight was made, how the Castle function in warfare and then shows why Castles slowly faded away. Excellent work for anyone interested in the topic and a must for Historical writers.
Rating:
Summary: a look into life in the Middle Ages
Review: This book is an excellent start in study the workings of a Castle and how everyday life was in Medieval times. The starts with the Castle arriving in England, and then moves into the various aspects of Castle life, the function of the Lord and Lady, the running of a household, how hunting was not a sport, but a means of survival. It goes into how a knight was made, how the Castle function in warfare and then shows why Castles slowly faded away. Excellent work for anyone interested in the topic and a must for Historical writers.
Rating:
Summary: Great Overview to Whett Your Interest in Medieval Castles
Review: This is an excellent overview of castle life in England from just after the Conquest until decline of the feudal era. It's nicely illustrated with photographs of extant castles and period illustrations. I would definitely recommend this as either a book for the casual reader who might have an interest in medieval social life or a beginning for a more serious study. The authors try to do a fair assesment of such issues as medieval hygeine (where it is all too easy to overwhelm the readers with descriptions of how dirty and disgusting the medieval life would be to modern sensibilities, thus overlooking that there was concern about unpleasant smells from the privy chamber, and how to fix it). The discussion on the duties associated with the feudal relationship is also very clear and readable. I particularly was interested in the mention at several points that physical blows were used as mnemonic aids. The buffet given a squire upon being knight was no mere tap, but many times a hearty blow meant to make him remember his oath of knightood. Also, beating the bounds was used to teach youngsters where the important landmarks were often by giving them a blow at the site of the landmark, or even bumping them against it. Fascinating look at the medieval ideas about learning-- which does have some effectiveness, epecially in a largely illiterate society, although it would probably be cause for arrest in any state in the US if it was used today. Libraries have been written on any one of the sujects that was mentioned in this book so don't expect it to hold the one answer to any question about medieval life in a castle, but it can't be beat for a clearly written overview.
Rating:
Summary: Great Overview to Whett Your Interest in Medieval Castles
Review: This is an excellent overview of castle life in England from just after the Conquest until decline of the feudal era. It's nicely illustrated with photographs of extant castles and period illustrations. I would definitely recommend this as either a book for the casual reader who might have an interest in medieval social life or a beginning for a more serious study. The authors try to do a fair assesment of such issues as medieval hygeine (where it is all too easy to overwhelm the readers with descriptions of how dirty and disgusting the medieval life would be to modern sensibilities, thus overlooking that there was concern about unpleasant smells from the privy chamber, and how to fix it). The discussion on the duties associated with the feudal relationship is also very clear and readable. I particularly was interested in the mention at several points that physical blows were used as mnemonic aids. The buffet given a squire upon being knight was no mere tap, but many times a hearty blow meant to make him remember his oath of knightood. Also, beating the bounds was used to teach youngsters where the important landmarks were often by giving them a blow at the site of the landmark, or even bumping them against it. Fascinating look at the medieval ideas about learning-- which does have some effectiveness, epecially in a largely illiterate society, although it would probably be cause for arrest in any state in the US if it was used today. Libraries have been written on any one of the sujects that was mentioned in this book so don't expect it to hold the one answer to any question about medieval life in a castle, but it can't be beat for a clearly written overview.
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