Faster

Rating:
Summary: Bad. Never coalesces to a message and point.
Review: Sadly disappointing from the same author of the wonderful book -Chaos-. Why did Gleick release this abortion? What was he thinking? This book is nothing more than snippets of today's developed world nanosecond cadence. Unless you're not part of this society (or living in a Montana hut), it's not news. This book has absolutely no flow and reads as if it was just cut-and-paste together in a haphazard fashion re: examples w/o any intent to author's -MESSAGE-. Yeah, things are moving much faster. And will continue to be even more this way. ...So? We know this. What's the point? Good insight if you don't live in this impatient developed world (meaning especially the United States). Else, an embarrassment to, at other times, fantastic author Gleick.

Rating:
Summary: THE book for the millennium
Review: The writing is cool and sometimes hilarious. The subject matter is US. Some of Gleick's readers seem flabbergasted he did not write Chaos all over again. This is different, not a science book at all, and daring to let us look again at things we thought we already knew.

The organization is brilliant too. After a while you think of a juggler, setting one ball after another in motion, until there's just a blur. But then one by one he pulls them all back in. By the end you realize what's happened before your very eyes. The chapter on the "Law of Small Numbers" alone is worth the price of the book - a gem.

Of everything I've read this year, this is the one I find myself thinking about again and again.

Rating:
Summary: No masterpiece, but completely relevant to the times
Review: Most criticism surrounding this book moans, "We already know this stuff." That is largely true, especially for those of us who spend our workdays pinned in front of a VDU, batting back email like tennis balls. But I also agree with what one well-known author (his name hangs just off the tongue) said about books that tell us what we already know: They're often the best kind. I like to know I'm not alone. For me, FASTER was confirmation of a collective human angst that itches just below society's surface; I could only think, Someone has finally SAID it--not in the usual broad, philosophical way, but with here-and-now details. Gleick's research uncovers the workings of the speed machine down to its smallest cogs--bits of insight I found, if not enlightening, certainly amusing. FASTER gives us a chance to see the puzzle and laugh at it at the same time.

The book is not meaningfully organized, nor does the author offer much in the way of solutions to the problem he illustrates. As much as I enjoyed the book, I also wanted more and wondered how the argument could have been better presented--with this topic, you could go almost anywhere. Overall, though, I don't think another book exists that goes into the nuts and bolts of how our fast-forward world works. FASTER, though not a masterpiece, nevertheless is an important work: We as a society are careening toward gridlock unless we can understand these processes and do something about them. Living in today's information age has been likened to trying to drink from a firehose. How fast do we have to go?

Rating:
Summary: Stream-of-consciousness writing.
Review: The book is titled appropriately enough, merely on the basis of how it was written---ruminations of an imaginative and analytical mind at the end of a century most remembered for its staggering array of technological advances (which seem to enhance and destroy our quality of life). Will subsequent centuries be regarded similarly?

But if it were not for its straightforward prose, I could have paused more often between chapters. Instead I consciously tried to keep pace with the author's obvious enthusiasm and excitement for his subject. After reading this book, I should not complain so much how I use my time. At any given day, I could have squandered my time or used it to my advantage, but it all comes down to whether I feel like I have accomplished or learned something with the time that I so deliberately made for myself. Life is too short---we make time for multitasking as well as for relaxing and doing nothing, perhaps just daydreaming.

Rating:
Summary: A letdown, and an endless list of things we already know...
Review: Faster: tends to wander aimlessly without providing any new insights into our lives or the human condition. The author claims that shorter commercials and movies must include action and explosions to hold us, that our attention spans are decreasing... Faster: doesn't help this situation by not providing an interesting read like Chaos. Maybe I would have finished it had he included a few explosions.

Rating:
Summary: deliciously written book!
Review: a book of this nature will always bring controversy, and some will love it, some will hate it, shame on those who did not read it ;))) (take it lightly! ;))).

very deliciously written, jumping from one point to another, sometime meaningless, sometime difficult to dicern, but often very shocking and MOST ENJOYABLE.

i jump page and just go with my mood, finish in a week (okay my english is -rather- limited!), and now seeking his other book, chaos maybe...

read this one! tanadi santoso, indonesia.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: This book describes how we want things done faster, and how things have gotten faster, but there are no real insights, or depth, or theories underlying this obvious assertion.

Rating:
Summary: Quickly disappointing
Review: After having read Gleick's "Genius" and "Chaos", I expected much much more. This is a superficial, nearly pointless discussion of the cheapness and frantic pace of our lives...We all already know that! I guess the author just needed a few more bucks in his bank account. I have a background in physics and the study of time both on a physical and a social level, and a thorough education on societies, calendars, timekeeping and timepieces. None of these topics was very well discussed here. As a matter of fact, not much of anything was discussed very well here.. Superficial and pointless. I have the distinct impression that the title was taken from what the publisher must have kept telling the author during the book's writing. Don't buy this book. If you must, borrow it from a library, and spend as little "time" on it as possible.

Rating:
Summary: A GREAT Book...
Review: ...to borrow from the public library

Rating:
Summary: Turns on the light. Sounds the alarm.
Review: Aha. Now I see why Gleick chose this for his last book of the millennium. I thought it might be a little like Future Schlock. Far from it. It's the present, not the future. It ties everything together. Very real, disturbing, maybe a little scary. Maybe hopeful, too, if we're paying attention. We NEED this book.