ayeesharbrts's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
amieco's review against another edition
It was an interesting read so far and ignited some much needed thoughts, but all in all it was a bit too academic for my taste and there were so many redundancies that it started to bore me.
jeffsauer's review against another edition
4.0
Liked hearing about her dad who at 30 took two years off to "ride his bike" and "see friends"
yvejr's review against another edition
I tried many times to read this book and couldn’t get into the first chapter. Nor when skimming did anything pull me in. Finally I tried an audio book format; I did not like it at all! This book is part memoir and part critique, written like a research paper. Very dry and comes off as pretentious. I feel harsh saying so but I really did give it a good try over the course of 2 years before officially giving up. I think the message is probably good and I have no doubt a lot of quality research and work went into this book - but I can’t handle the writing style.
matildaaa2722's review against another edition
3.0
Good ideas, poor execution. Tangents that aren't really relevant at all, part memoir that I didn't sign up for, overall messy composition. I think it could've used a good editor.
kaitlynhermansen's review against another edition
slow-paced
3.0
A book about things we are unable to do when our minds are elsewhere- like social media or the news. I really enjoyed this at first… and then this just quickly became a BORE. This was quite difficult to get through and I must confess I barely read the last two chapters. Odell is just too smart for me and this book is pretty inaccessible to most meager minds like my own. Words too big, too much philosophical thinking, and lots of phrasing and descriptions that made me feel dumb as hell.
I loooved the first few chapters, where she focuses on the bravery it takes to live a life of observation whilst living in a world constantly trying to capitalize off of us. I also enjoyed her commentary on the racial inequality of affording to refuse. But after those chapters? Can’t tell you what happened. Because I skimmed through it seeing if it would ever get interesting.
Odell is smart. She has a lot to say. I just am not smart enough to understand it, and I don’t feel like I’m a dumb person? Like I really tried to take the time to read this- it took me over two months to get through this and it’s only like 200 pages. So idk I’m just annoyed honestly!!! I put so much time into this damn book and my brain hurts from reading it, but not in the good way. In the way where you spend too much time at a party talking to someone who has the intense need to make you KNOW that they’re smarter and cooler than you are.
I loooved the first few chapters, where she focuses on the bravery it takes to live a life of observation whilst living in a world constantly trying to capitalize off of us. I also enjoyed her commentary on the racial inequality of affording to refuse. But after those chapters? Can’t tell you what happened. Because I skimmed through it seeing if it would ever get interesting.
Odell is smart. She has a lot to say. I just am not smart enough to understand it, and I don’t feel like I’m a dumb person? Like I really tried to take the time to read this- it took me over two months to get through this and it’s only like 200 pages. So idk I’m just annoyed honestly!!! I put so much time into this damn book and my brain hurts from reading it, but not in the good way. In the way where you spend too much time at a party talking to someone who has the intense need to make you KNOW that they’re smarter and cooler than you are.