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jessiejessj's review against another edition
informative
fast-paced
4.0
This book was given to me by my work, and at the time I wasn’t at all interested in it. However, I really enjoyed it compared to what I was expecting. I thought it would be boring and a total drag, but I read the book quite quickly on the days I actually wrote it, and I learned a lot. For a book I wouldn’t have picked out for myself, I really quite liked it!
mdross1's review against another edition
2.0
I’m glad that the epilogue clarified that this was, essentially, a collection of blog posts, because it has the thematic cohesion of a collection of blog posts. None of them individually was earth-shattering or revelatory, but as a whole it was a bit of a disorienting mess of points.
I wanted to read this book hoping to at least pick up some ‘fun facts’ but I’m not sure I’ve even done that.
I wanted to read this book hoping to at least pick up some ‘fun facts’ but I’m not sure I’ve even done that.
chinney's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.75
Bill Gates: Wow: Great statistics to quote 71 stories. Data driven view of the world. not sure agree with all conclusions. methodology very sound
miguelf's review against another edition
3.0
Not my favorite version of Smil as this is more like a bathroom book with miniscule chapters on some fairly weighty issues and didn’t think that he would author a ‘bathroom book’. Though packed with a lot of facts and figures, it feels like a lot of filler especially when you know what he is capable of writing. Still if it serves to introduce a wider audience to the topics of population trends, energy use, and environmental impact then it was a worthwhile endeavor.