Book Review: Faster
June 11th, 2006 by Grant in: Book Reviews
James Gleick pulls out all the stops in an attempt to convince you that you’re being left in the dust by the rest of the world in his book Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything.
Ironically, “Faster” is about the slowest read I’ve encountered in a long time. Even more ironic is that Gleick agrees, pointing out in the last few pages that due to all the examples of how microchips, cell phones, and television producers are catering to our desire to do more in less time, it’s a tough book to wrap your brain around.
To be frank, I was a bit disappointed. The facts are interesting, yet seemingly unorganized and repetitive. While I could identify with his Type-A personality observations, it was just a short segment of the book that really kept my attention.
We are moving at a record clip in our society, to be sure. Ever annoyed that broadband speed just doesn’t seem to cut it anymore (even while data from a EvolutionShift.com suggests that broadband is just now coming of age in lower income households, but still in the shadows in others), or that the two second delay between tracks on your CD is wasting your time, we are definately influenced by the clock.
There are 1,440 minutes to every day, and you fill them doing something, even if something seems like nothing. Leisure time is actually time we just want to throw away, and free time is nothing more than a gap in our schedule that needs to be filled.
Faster is an interesting book, but the organization and the repetitiveness bring it down. With my time being so valuable, I feel there are better books to read while trying to fill my free time…
How ironic is that?
I’ll give Chaos a try, another book by Gleick which I hear is a much better read.
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July 9th, 2006 at 4:09 pm
I wasn't impressed with Faster. As you said, very repetitive and boring.
July 18th, 2006 at 2:56 pm
I didn’t much care for Faster either. While there was some good information in the book, it was poorly organized.
Jaime