Usually when I have a choice of books to read on a subject - like finding a biography on Benjamin Franklin out of many available options - I'll consult the ratings on Amazon.com to make my decision. In the past, they've been a good guide for me on how I'll like a book. Not in this case. This book gets nearly five stars on Amazon, but I found this book rather dull. After constantly drifting off while reading, I began to wonder if it was me - that maybe I wasn't in the mood to read, or that it was my fault for not adequately concentrating.

In any case, I found this book to be more a set of anecdotes about Franklin then a biography with a narrative. The author fails to provide perspective about the era or the culture to put his life in context. Maybe the author was overly fearful of making the mistake of not focusing on his subject. However, the author describes a major Revolutionary War battle as "American forces won a battle in Canada," not giving the name of the battle or why it was major or any other information that might interesting or relevant to Mr. Franklin. It reminded me of the Saturday Night Live sketch where a newspaper editor wants the headline for Pearl Harbor to be, "Asians Attack Base."

Having dozed my way through this book, taking far longer to read it than I usually do, I don't recommend it.