How to Look At Everything

Rating:
Summary: Not to put to fine a point on it...
Review: but this book is worthless. The one key phrase in the book, "with passion," is obvious. The rest of the book is meaningless filler about the author's experience looking at things. It's just devoid of content.

Rating:
Summary: not what is promised
Review: Maybe I took the title and reviews too literally, but I think this book should be called "Things I Look At" -- a title which promises less interesting content, and delivers just that.

Here is a short excerpt (page 50): "The other day I saw a tree right in front of the office building in which I work; I couldn't believe that I had never noticed it before and I admired its wonderfully graceful branches. .... On a cold winter day I saw a policewoman directing traffic and speculated about the clothes she must be wearing to keep herself warm."

First, why should I trust this author to teach me to see things anew when he hasn't noticed a beautiful tree he passes frequently? Secondly, while the premise of the book rests on the idea of enriching one's visual appreciation, the author's decriptions are consistently impoverished. I would hope that the author would proceed to tell me what it is that makes the tree branches graceful -- paint a verbal picture and teach me how to look at the tree. Or tell me how to approach a painting, to see it from afar and then approach it -- what do I look for that makes it special and beautiful. This never happens; instead it is a series of personal anecdotes that rarely probe very deeply.

Pictures are interesting, some in color, but again they are not used to accomplish what the title promises.

A disappointment unless one is interested in the author rather than the subject of the title.

Rating:
Summary: not what is promised
Review: Maybe I took the title and reviews too literally, but I think this book should be called "Things I Look At" -- a title which promises less interesting content, and delivers just that.

Here is a short excerpt (page 50): "The other day I saw a tree right in front of the office building in which I work; I couldn't believe that I had never noticed it before and I admired its wonderfully graceful branches. .... On a cold winter day I saw a policewoman directing traffic and speculated about the clothes she must be wearing to keep herself warm."

First, why should I trust this author to teach me to see things anew when he hasn't noticed a beautiful tree he passes frequently? Secondly, while the premise of the book rests on the idea of enriching one's visual appreciation, the author's decriptions are consistently impoverished. I would hope that the author would proceed to tell me what it is that makes the tree branches graceful -- paint a verbal picture and teach me how to look at the tree. Or tell me how to approach a painting, to see it from afar and then approach it -- what do I look for that makes it special and beautiful. This never happens; instead it is a series of personal anecdotes that rarely probe very deeply.

Pictures are interesting, some in color, but again they are not used to accomplish what the title promises.

A disappointment unless one is interested in the author rather than the subject of the title.

Rating:
Summary: Freshen your perspective with this book.
Review: Once again Finn prompts a new way of seeing just as he did with museums, sculpture and photographs in his earlier books. His book will open your eyes to another way of seeing the world.

Rating:
Summary: Freshen your perspective with this book.
Review: Once again Finn prompts a new way of seeing just as he did with museums, sculpture and photographs in his earlier books. His book will open your eyes to another way of seeing the world.