What is Reddit's opinion of Chinese Art of Tea?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

Re-read your OP and think no, the questions are too broad.

The kind of survey books that would attract a novice looking to learn about the kinds of tea in the world, and how they're made, tend to get the history wrong, or to take legend too seriously.

The Camellia Sinensis and Tea Trekker books get a lot of love, but they are focused on teas sold by those people, which is fair, it's what they know, but they're not completely general and they're not histories.

I haven't looked at a <em>Tea Lover's Treasury</em> in a long, long time, but remember it as being good for talking about India, Ceylon, and some of the more famous China teas. It's been through a lot of editions and for a long time was basically the only beginner's tea book that was worth looking at. The author is still active as a consultant in the tea industry, I believe.

<em>Chinese Art of Tea</em> is old and in many ways dated, but I re-read it not long ago and still think it's a good intro to China teas. It contains a very early (in English-language writing) description of gongfu tea preparation, which when I first read it I never believed I would encounter the teas and equipment to try it myself. Blofeld was a bit of a woo-slinger IRL though, and some of that comes through in the historical bits.

I don't know of a general intro on Japanese tea that's not pompous and bullshitty.

As for tea history books, that's a whole other wall of text. Just remember that woo-slinging and bullshitting about tea goes all the way back to to time of Lu Yu.