Review: Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The actual habit formation advice seems legit to me. I really appreciated the fact that there was a summary at the end of the book that covered all the tips within it. I don't think the advice will work for everyone, but it does seem like useful advice.

There was a little bit of strangeness here and there with studies and quotations that seemed slightly misrepresented. This one bit, talking about human instinct and how powerful it is, was not very accurate. In general, it uses a lot of anecdotal evidence instead of empirical evidence to make broad generalized claims.

At its heart, not a bad book. Decent, easy to skim through to get to the good parts. I will be returning to the summary at the end. A vast portion of the book was just anecdotes that I did not think added much to the overall understanding or reading. The personal story in the beginning was touching and propelled me. Every other story made me want to stop reading.

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Review: Statistics without Tears: An Introduction for Non-Mathematicians

Statistics without Tears: An Introduction for Non-Mathematicians by Derek Rowntree
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The difficulty of rating this book is that I am not entirely convinced it was for me.

It teaches statistics from the very basics and goes to a relatively good degree of depth. It is quick, it is streamlined and it gives you the basic tools you need to interpret statistics. It shies away from some of the terminologies, most notably it refuses to use greek letters, but I think that does not really impact it too much.

A brief and informative read that helped me review the statistics material I had studied, but I need to qualify that by saying this will not be enough. It's a good starting point, and if you've studied statistics before then it will remind you of the terms and help you conceptually. However, you will need to supplement this with other reading and practice centred around why you want to understand statistics and the tools you want to use.

All in all, a good review book that covers all the ground from near-scratch. If that's not what you're looking for, not for you. For me, it worked because I wanted a brief overview before I dived into it in more depth.

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Review: Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A fairly interesting read on two levels.

In the most basic sense, as a book about work habits and improving oneself, I think this was interesting. There are tips that seem obvious and others that seem not so obvious, but I’m probably going to try to incorporate them into my habit for a few weeks to see how much of an impact it makes. The concept of Deep Work isn’t particularly novel and almost self-explanatory. In that sense, the book serves more as a push into a habit you already knew was good. At the same time, there are tips inside it that might help make the habit more consistent.

On a secondary level, this is also a cool jumping off point to research into philosophical and psychological ideas. The concept of fulfilment through craftsmanship is a fairly interesting philosophical approach to living, and I think it merits some serious research. The psychological ideas connected with focus and fulfilment are also interesting. The book drops a few names that may be a springboard and also introduces some base concepts (albeit without too much depth). Finally, at one point, it talks about an architectural concept called the Eudaimonia machine which is the first time I really considered the intersection of philosophy and architecture. Something I will be revisiting.

On the other hand, the book tends to oversimplify and strawman when presenting arguments in certain places. When discussing social media, for example, it does not address the use of Facebook and other social media as network tools. I’m reminded of Never Eat Alone and tempted to quote it at this book because it ignores the fact that frequent communication, even if frivolous, can be immensely powerful in maintaining relationships. Furthermore, I think it is severely discounting the benefit of distractions as a means to push one into head spaces which are scattered but more prone to a multitude of ideas, useful for brainstorming. This critique is slightly nit picky, considering the book addresses at points the fact that deep-work isn’t ubiquitous (There’s a section titled “What about Jack Dorsey?”, though even that oversimplifies when people need to be connected.) I think that it spends far too much time trying to prove the importance of deep work, I’d rather read about ways to improve my habit.

Some of this is down to personal taste, but I mostly think that the insights are useful for specific kinds of work and not as universal as the book often implies. That said, my instinct is that the insights ARE definitely useful. So, overall, good book.

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Review: How to Read Literature Like a Professor

How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am glad I read this book.

It’s witty, charming and very interesting for someone who is interested in learning more about literature and interpretation. It is also incredibly useful for someone trying to write richer works with better impact.

The core lesson here, the idea that the book seems to want to leave you with, is that reading can be all the more rewarding when you are aware, when you are careful and thoughtful. That is a beautiful lesson, and it is presented well. The two dozen or so patterns introduced in this book are not comprehensive, but if you are reading Western literature you will see them repeatedly and undoubtedly. As the book says, once you start recognising patterns with the broad and general ones, you will learn to recognise more specific ones.

There is a wealth of authors and books referenced here. Some are powerful and well-known, others are slightly less well-known but I will definitely be seeking them out now. I think that’s another awesome thing you get from reading this.

And as someone who writes, it is so cool to see interpretations of other works and learn about the process of analysis. The imagery and symbolism is definitely worth exploring to make one’s own work more interesting.

All in all, a solid read for anyone who wants a richer experience reading books and writing stories.

(It’s also superbly paced. I learned so much, with so many examples, so rapidly. It felt perfect as a book to teach me the basics of how to approach the subject of reading literature through the lens of literary analysis).

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Review: Turn a Blind Eye

Turn a Blind Eye by Jeffrey Archer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It’s a perfectly satisfactory book. It is exactly what you would expect. A story that follows a perfect beat sheet, delivering every hit exactly where you would want it to. There are limited moments of surprise, spaced out in a way that delivers the most technical strength, the story is well-formed and flows well. It is easy to read, has a cast of characters that are interesting to follow and you are never in doubt as to who the good guys are.

There isn’t any moment of real surprise, something completely unexpected. There are a few, very rare, moments of fatigue where it feels like Mr. Archer is repeating old threads. And, in one place, he reuses the exact same dialogue which is a bit unsettling.

I can’t complain about this book, but I can’t say it was anything special either. It’s perfectly satisfactory, nothing more and nothing less.

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