Scan barcode
A review by kartrick
The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr
4.0
My qualitative rating would be 3/5, but I gave it 4 just for the value it holds and how important I feel it is for everyone living in today's world.
Now, I am quite unsure whether it was my generally poor reading performance in the past year or so, or whether it was due to the book being dotted with facts and citations (I am quite new to the non-fiction realm), but it was an incredibly difficult read. It took me 7 months from start to finish. Nick Carr's academic background explains the style of his writing, but it does not endear to me.
Regardless, the book has incredible value and I would recommend it to everyone. I personally was already feeling overwhelmed with the world's pace, which is when I stumbled upon this book. It was enlightening for me, as it helped me realise and understand the reason(s) I was feeling the way I was. It affirmed some suspicions I was beginning to form, and led me to start actively thinking about how to deal with them. It showed me that I was not alone (as I naively thought in the early stages), and more importantly, that there are many ways in which people have been dealing with this.
I cannot really say the book provides remedies, because it doesn't, but it certainly gets the reader thinking about their own "twitches" which in itself is very crucial.
Now, I am quite unsure whether it was my generally poor reading performance in the past year or so, or whether it was due to the book being dotted with facts and citations (I am quite new to the non-fiction realm), but it was an incredibly difficult read. It took me 7 months from start to finish. Nick Carr's academic background explains the style of his writing, but it does not endear to me.
Regardless, the book has incredible value and I would recommend it to everyone. I personally was already feeling overwhelmed with the world's pace, which is when I stumbled upon this book. It was enlightening for me, as it helped me realise and understand the reason(s) I was feeling the way I was. It affirmed some suspicions I was beginning to form, and led me to start actively thinking about how to deal with them. It showed me that I was not alone (as I naively thought in the early stages), and more importantly, that there are many ways in which people have been dealing with this.
I cannot really say the book provides remedies, because it doesn't, but it certainly gets the reader thinking about their own "twitches" which in itself is very crucial.