A difficult book- review by 'Keyne Readers' - Rated 
This turned out not to be a good choice for us. Many of the group did not manage to read much of the book. There were a variety of individual reasons, but perhaps the book is simply difficult to engage with, and uncomfortable when you do. A number of people started it but turned to lighter books for bedtime and holiday reading (which is when most of us do our reading for this group, so heavyweight reading does not go down well). Chapter 1 in particular was not popular. People struggled with it. Someone remarked that there were just too many characters. One member had a copy of the book on her shelves for 20 years and had never got round to reading it. She got bogged down in the first chapter, but persisted and found the book got better as she read alter chapters. Some people liked the fact that they could dip into chapters that were of different styles and different lengths.
One of the group remembered that she had once worked on a course that used something of his called `The Mark of a Chemist', about learning to be a professional chemist. We discussed whether reading The Periodic Table would enthuse anyone to become a chemist. Some of us (non-chemists) felt that we got a sense of his excitement and passion for his work, and thre were places where we laughed at his mis-haps. Our professional chemistry academic loved it, but someone else who had studied chemistry with other sciences felt that she couldn't relate it to the chemistry she knew. For some it reminded them of why they gave up the subject. Although the book is a biography of a `jobbing' chemist, and authoritative about chemistry, many of the group preferred the parts about people. However, we also noted that Levi is the central character through out, other characters tend to be significant only with respect to their relationship to Levi, not as characters in their own right.
Some members had an edition with an introductory chapter which discussed Levi's suicide. We were all shocked that he died in this way and we were aware of it as we read the book. Maybe knowing this was why some of us felt that the book was full of sense of foreboding. It is as much a retrospective story about the experience of Jewishness in the 20th century, as of being a chemist.
wrong book - Rated 
This book with the title "The Periodic Table", "The best science book ever written" (comment by the London's Royal Institute) is completely misleading. If you are in search of a book explaining the periodic table, then this is NOT the one to buy. I couldn't care less about Primo Levi or the Jewish community in Piedmont. I'm returning this book! It's like buying a book called "The Christmas Cake, the ultimate cookery book" and ending up reading a story about sunny Africa. It goes into Room 101!
Recommended for academic fairies. - Rated
The first few paragraphs seemed to cover a phenomenal sense of history, humanity and with beautiful prose, but the "Essential penguin" edition is printed with characters the size of one lead atom (or possibly 9pt type) and is subsequently unreadable.
A little disappointing - Rated
Levi's books about Auschwitz and its aftermath ('If This is a Man' and 'The Truce') are great works of twentieth century literature (and important documents of twentieth century history). By comparison, 'TPT' is slightly more self-indulgent, combining Levi's two great loves in life, chemistry and writing. It is a series of short stories (mostly non-fiction), each of which is based on a theme dictated by the properties of a chemical element and usually focussing on Levi's career. Levi deliberately omitted the Auschwitz years, making 'TPT' a generally quirky and upbeat read.
I did find 'TPT' enjoyable, but much more frivolous and less emotionally involving than his other books. Perhaps it is unfair to look at Levi as only a holocaust survivor, but I didn't feel that he had much to say about the other parts of his life. There is an ominous quality to some of the writing, as he goes about his daily life barely paying attention to the gathering war, unaware of the horror it would eventually bring, but I found too much to be lightweight and uninteresting. The analogy to chemical elements was often forced or fleeting, providing very little cohesion to the book as a whole. I certainly didn't hate 'TPT', and perhaps my expectations had been raised too high by what I had previously read, but it wasn't, in my opinion, Levi at his best.
A Master Piece - Rated 
This books brings forth the literay genius of Levi, though the title says "periodic table", it has very little to with compelx chemistry. What he is alluding to through this title, is that there is a purpose,a plan, and order for events in life - as the order of elements found in the periodic table. He is a master stroy teller, you can feel the passion, the joy and the pain, he takes you along with him in his narration, you can litearlly feel the emotions, while you read, wonderful flow of the language and full of human emotions. In simple words, its a must to read.
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