ktxx22's review against another edition
3.0
United States government you dirty scheming bastard. Snowden goes into detail on his life, how he got interested in computers, and how he went to work for the government. I found the early stuff really interesting and the ending equally so. Unfortunately, that middle 1/4 of the book was extremely technical and kind of felt like an info dump especially for someone who is basically a computer novice; in regards to programming. I think Snowden speaks candidly about his life and the reasoning behind him going public with what he found out about the mass surveillance the government was doing. That part of the book is worth the read if you are even moderately interested. This is not for everyone though. 3/5
blester042590's review against another edition
challenging
informative
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
3.5
panda0's review against another edition
4.0
The first third did drag a bit about his personal life, but it was overall a good insight into his background and decision making.
sfletcher26's review against another edition
3.0
I'm not a very computer literate person. In fact my computer use is like that of my use of a car; I can drive both but have no real idea of how they run underneath the bonnet. This is therefore not a book I would normally have chosen to read for fear of it being too technical. If I'm honest I only read it because it was a book club pick.
Having finished it I'm really pleased to have done so. Snowden writes engagingly and manages to explain complex ideas and systems well. I'm looking forward to discussing this at our next book club.
Having finished it I'm really pleased to have done so. Snowden writes engagingly and manages to explain complex ideas and systems well. I'm looking forward to discussing this at our next book club.