A brilliant and brave investigation by Michael Pollan, author of five New York Times best …
Review of 'How to Change Your Mind' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
Interesting topic. But nothing more uninteresting than hearing people describe their trips, especially if you haven't experienced any, I would imagine. Subjective experiences of people manipulating their brain into different states. Sometimes pages upon pages of wondering what the hallucinated plant creature tried to tell him during a trip. I couldn't care less. It took me half a year to get through this book. Not worth the effort.
"The Power of Less" is a blueprint for reducing the clutter, noise, and unnecessary work …
Review of 'The power of less' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
It's a motivating book, no doubt. Is there much scientific backing to his processes and does he outline what his methods are based on? If the data is on his side, he rarely mentions it. There are some internet related cultural aspects he mentions that are wholly outdated in 2023, not that it would really change much the processes that he's talking about. But there is a disproportionate focus on handling your email, which may not be a central issue anymore, as there are worse attention grabbers out there.
To sum up, low on referenced science, moderately high on emotion, clearly written and useful for reminding you to get back on track with your life. It's largely not a revelatory book as many concepts it mentions you probably already know. But it has the essentials in a nice package that you might want to return to every once in a …
It's a motivating book, no doubt. Is there much scientific backing to his processes and does he outline what his methods are based on? If the data is on his side, he rarely mentions it. There are some internet related cultural aspects he mentions that are wholly outdated in 2023, not that it would really change much the processes that he's talking about. But there is a disproportionate focus on handling your email, which may not be a central issue anymore, as there are worse attention grabbers out there.
To sum up, low on referenced science, moderately high on emotion, clearly written and useful for reminding you to get back on track with your life. It's largely not a revelatory book as many concepts it mentions you probably already know. But it has the essentials in a nice package that you might want to return to every once in a while to remind yourself.
Like the subtitle says: what rationality is, the habits of mind that exhibit (and inhibit) …
Review of 'Rationality' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
An important topic. It's better to look up some of the jargon before jumping into this book. Reads half like a textbook. On one hand explains already commonly understood concepts, on the other delves into advanced ones. Overall valuable for further studying of the topics and I will likely read it again.
Reads like most of the dime a dozen sci-fi from around the era. I find it curious that anything so predictable would become known as 'The Thing' film phenomenon later on, films which are not worth celebrating either. Mind-numbingly boring.
The key to living well in a high tech world is to spend much less …
Review of 'Digital Minimalism' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
A man who never used social media telling me how to not use it or use it less/more effectively. It could work, but some of that lack of touching point becomes clear. As a context, I do not find myself very addicted to social platforms. But I was looking for some ideas on how to reduce their influence. There is some good pointers here, but mostly anecdotal stories on what to do. Some of the suggestions are good and many you might've already heard many times before. I didn't find this deeply insightful. Nevertheless, it might be useful for a person who has never dived into the topic. It just seems to me he thought of a useful topic for his book but wasn't able to put in the engaging content.
"A searing story of starvation and survival in North Korea, followed by a dramatic escape, …
Review of 'Under the same sky' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
This book opens so many trains of thought that it is hard to put together anything in words in a review. But it is likely you can't understand even a sliver of the hardships endured in this land until you've read a first-hand story like this.
It is the Day of the Dead. The fiesta in full swing. In the shadow …
Review of 'Under the volcano' on 'Goodreads'
1 star
Mostly unreadable stream-of-consciousness gibberish. The author uses so many big words you will spend your time checking the dictionary every 30 seconds. Somehow, the text improves in, say, the last 3 chapters, and the author drops the big words all of a sudden for no apparent reason. Perhaps he got tired of checking the dictionary himself and wondering which fancy words he should use next.
There's so much Spanish and other foreign languages here that you'd better finish the entire Spanish course in Duolingo before you even considering reading this book. Otherwise, the content has the appearance of constant stream-of-consciousness; meandering conversations that lead absolutely nowhere, boring background stories of the characters. 50 pages in you've probably lost concentration and interest, but I finished the whole beast.
The way the novel is written makes you lose track of what's going on and where. Shortly after you don't even care, least …
Mostly unreadable stream-of-consciousness gibberish. The author uses so many big words you will spend your time checking the dictionary every 30 seconds. Somehow, the text improves in, say, the last 3 chapters, and the author drops the big words all of a sudden for no apparent reason. Perhaps he got tired of checking the dictionary himself and wondering which fancy words he should use next.
There's so much Spanish and other foreign languages here that you'd better finish the entire Spanish course in Duolingo before you even considering reading this book. Otherwise, the content has the appearance of constant stream-of-consciousness; meandering conversations that lead absolutely nowhere, boring background stories of the characters. 50 pages in you've probably lost concentration and interest, but I finished the whole beast.
The way the novel is written makes you lose track of what's going on and where. Shortly after you don't even care, least of all of the main character. I read this book in case it would be better than the movie experience I had of Under the Volcano roughly 18 years ago. I thought that perhaps I was too young to appreciate the movie. I can now positively say that the movie still stinks, and the book even more.
