DID NOT FINISH: 49%

I didn't think much of the reviews complaining about the author's intellectualism... then I came to a detailed diagram (with shapes and arrows) comparing Sherlock Holmes and James Bond which was meant to illustrate a point on state violence.

I read the first two chapters and part of the last chapter to see if it got better and had to stop. I like reading academic essays, but this reads as a convoluted thesis with no real point. Graeber covers almost every topic from TV to classical religion with what felt like very little discussion on bureaucracy.