Review of 'Bernie' on 'GoodReads'
3 stars
Why I Picked It Up ##
Saw it was available. I read Rall's [b:Snowden|24940344|Snowden|Ted Rall|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1467304680l/24940344.SX50.jpg|44597863] recently and thought it was a good cliffs notes sort of summary of him and his story, so I thought I'd give it a go.
## What I Liked About It ##
Quick read. Finished it in one night.
I didn't really know anything about Bernie aside outside his 2016 and 2020 presidential platforms. Literally didn't know he was a very successful four-term mayor of Burlington. So it was cool learning a little bit about his background.
## What I Didn't Like About It ##
Illegibility: I read it on an e-reader, so maybe this isn't an issue in print, but it was literally hard to read. Imprecise punctuation made my puzzle over sentence structure and meaning several times. There were a couple callouts that had white text on very bright backgrounds that …
Saw it was available. I read Rall's [b:Snowden|24940344|Snowden|Ted Rall|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1467304680l/24940344.SX50.jpg|44597863] recently and thought it was a good cliffs notes sort of summary of him and his story, so I thought I'd give it a go.
## What I Liked About It ##
Quick read. Finished it in one night.
I didn't really know anything about Bernie aside outside his 2016 and 2020 presidential platforms. Literally didn't know he was a very successful four-term mayor of Burlington. So it was cool learning a little bit about his background.
## What I Didn't Like About It ##
Illegibility: I read it on an e-reader, so maybe this isn't an issue in print, but it was literally hard to read. Imprecise punctuation made my puzzle over sentence structure and meaning several times. There were a couple callouts that had white text on very bright backgrounds that were hard to read.
Big block of historical context: This is kind-of-liked-it, kind-of-didn't, but the first large portion of the book was not about Bernie Sanders, but about the history of the Democratic party and it's ideological drift to the right. Which is interesting. And important to paint Bernie's "radical" ideology as reasonable and more centrist than radical left. And I kind of already knew about that.
It was in fact a little light on personal details. Which Rall kind of addresses at one point by having Bernie explain why he doesn't talk about his personal life. But the result is a book that feels like it's mostly about politics and a little bit about Bernie Sanders.