Review: Slow Productivity (by Cal Newport)

My Rating: 3.5 stars

I definitely have mixed feelings when it comes to my thoughts on this book.  Admittedly, I don’t read a lot of non-fiction books, especially ones that fall into the “self-help” category (as this one undoubtedly does).  One reason is because I don’t find most of these “self-help” books particularly “helpful” and since it takes me longer to read non-fiction books in general, I feel it wouldn’t be a good use of my time.  In this light, Cal Newport’s latest book, Slow Productivity, is a bit of an anomaly – on the one hand, I found the anecdotes and stories it tells of a wide-ranging mix of famous people such as Isaac Newton, Jane Austen, Benjamin Franklin, Georgia O’Keefe, Jewel, Alanis Morrisette, etc. quite fascinating and entertaining.  While some of the examples that Newport used to illustrate his points were a bit of a stretch in my opinion, the interesting storytelling made up for the shortcomings in this area, in my opinion.  With that said however, as a practical guide on productivity, I don’t feel this book was tremendously helpful.  Case in point – despite having just finished the book, I’ve already forgotten the “principles” that form the basis of the “slow productivity” philosophy that Newport advocates as well as the practical strategies that he suggests for combatting burnout.  Even after re-reading the summary in attempts to trigger my memory, what comes to mind first and foremost are the stories and anecdotes rather than the guidance or any actionable advice that Newport provides. 

Given the above, it should probably come as no surprise that I don’t have a whole lot to say about this book, so my review will be shorter than what I usually write.  I do recall thinking to myself at various points that I might be able to apply a particular concept in my life, but then I would get to one of the stories and would become so absorbed that I forget the previous point.  Overall, I did get some things out of this book, so it definitely wasn’t a wasted effort in terms of reading experience, just maybe it didn’t serve the purpose that the author intended for it to serve.

Review: Meditations for Mortals (by Oliver Burkeman)

 My Rating: 4 stars

When it comes to books that fall into the “self-help” category, I’ve never been much of a fan, as I find a majority of these books are “overly-preachy” in tone and oftentimes also employ aggressive-sounding language that essentially tries to shame the reader into following the advice at hand.  I’ve always been picky with books, but given this particular pet peeve of mine, I tend to be even more careful when choosing self-help books to read.  Two years ago, I came across Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks and upon the recommendation of trusted book friends (who obviously understood my wariness toward self-help books), I read the book and really enjoyed it.  One of the things I liked most about that book was how Burkeman presented advice regarding time management and productivity (among other things) that largely ran counter to the advice traditionally presented in business books.  As I wrote in my review of that book, Burkeman essentially takes the advice that those time management books preach – the idea of “making more time to get more done” – and throws it out the window.  Instead, his message is that since time is finite and most humans are only on this earth for an average of four thousand weeks, it is realistically impossible to get every single thing that we want to do done – so instead of obsessing over how to cram more “to do” stuff into a short time span, it’s better to just make the conscious decision to do what matters most in the moment and accept the consequences (good or bad) of that choice. 

 

Burkeman’s follow-up to that book is Meditations for Mortals, which came out back in September.  In this much slimmer book, Burkeman takes the concepts from Four Thousand Weeks and breaks them down into “mediations” across 28 days (4 weeks), with the focus specifically on how to embrace our limitations (or “imperfectionism” as Burkeman puts it) and make those choices that matter.  Burkeman wrote the book in a flexible manner where it can either be read all the way through in one or two sittings, or taken in bite-size morsels over a 4 week period (even though I chose to read the book all in one sitting, I appreciate the flexibility that this format provides).

 

Overall, I actually enjoyed this book more than his previous one, probably because I felt it was more accessible, both content-wise and format-wise.  Four Thousand Weeks was a good book, but as I mentioned in my review, it waxed a bit too philosophical in some parts, rendering some of the content a little too abstract.  This follow-up is less philosophical and more practical, which made the content easier to digest and remember.  The format also makes it easier to go back and re-read particular sections that may be more relevant and applicable than others.

 

For those who already read Four Thousand Weeks, I highly recommend reading this follow-up, as it synthesizes some of the concepts from there and, in my opinion, enhances that book.  If you haven’t read that book yet, I would say no need to go back – just read this one instead.

Review: Supercommunicators (by Charles Duhigg)

My Rating:  4 stars

As I've mentioned in previous reviews, books classified under the "self-help" category can be very much a hit or miss for me. This is partly because overall, it already takes me longer to read nonfiction books and with so many books on my TBR, the time pressure can be quite palpable.  More significantly though, when the book contains a "self-help" element, I feel even more pressure to actually "get" something out of the book in order for me to feel like it was worth my while to read.  This last part depends a lot on how the "self-help" element is presented, which could go in either the "yes, this resonates with me" or "no, most of this doesn't apply to me" direction (of course I always hope for the former).  

In this case, Charles Duhigg's newest book Supercommunicators definitely fell into the "resonant" category for me, even though I will admit that I was a tad hesitant about the subject matter at first. I actually decided to pick up this book not because of the subject (believe me, as an introvert with social anxiety who prefers to be alone rather than be around others, reading about how to better communicate is the last thing I want to do, lol), but rather because I had really enjoyed Duhigg's The Power of Habit (which was massively popular when it first came out in 2012) and so was hoping to find more of the same.  While I have to say that this book turned out to be quite different from the habit book in terms of scope and topic, there were some similarities that made it as enjoyable and interesting a read as that one.  First and foremost, I like that the book is written in a straightforward, easy to understand way, with practical, real world examples that felt both realistic and familiar.  I also like how he formatted the book (similarly to his habit book) where he would structure each chapter around a case study and present details that tied the study to the particular concept he was discussing.  Most of all though, I like the journalistic format where it felt at times that I was reading a series of well-written articles (the type of long-form story-like narratives often found in newsmagazines) — of course this is not surprising given that Duhigg is a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter / journalist (and yes, he writes for newsmagazines in addition to newspapers).

For me, one of the things that can be a "deal-breaker" when I read self-help books is the author's tone, which comes across in their style of writing.  Personally, I can't stand self-help books that make me feel like I'm being lectured or talked down to or that subtly imply that I'm missing out if I don't apply the concepts from the book right then and there. I'm the type of person who needs to let concepts and ideas sink in slowly and gradually before I can derive meaning from them, so I'm not keen on books that feel pushy or overly-preachy.  Duhigg writes in a way where his enthusiasm for the subject shines through, but there's also enough neutrality and restraint where it doesn't feel like he's trying to push me toward one direction or another (at least not overtly anyway, lol).  He also writes with a sense of humor, which I always appreciate, especially in nonfiction books.

Even though some of the concepts covered in this book I felt wouldn't necessarily apply to me, there was plenty that I resonated with…and to me surprise, one of the concepts that Duhigg advocated in the book was something I was already doing for years — I guess I was applying "super communicator" techniques without even knowing it!

This is a book that fans of Duhigg's works will undoubtedly enjoy.  Even if you're not a fan though, there's still plenty to enjoy.  If you've read The Power of Habit , the structure of the book will definitely be recognizable (and if you liked that one, most likely this one will appeal as well).  I just found out that Duhigg also wrote a book on productivity and few years after the habit one — I'm definitely interested in checking that book out at some point!

Received ARC from Random House via NetGalley. 

Review: The Art of Gathering (by Priya Parker)

My Rating: 4 stars

I had heard about this book when it first came out in 2018 and over the past couple years, I kept hearing the book recommended over and over again, both by strangers as well as by bookish friends.  I have social anxiety so I've never been one for hosting and I rarely ever go to parties, which is why, when I first heard that this book was about "gatherings," I put off reading it.  But then as I heard people talking about the book, I realized it could be applicable to gatherings of all kinds, including work gatherings both formal and informal (such as meetings and conferences), plus I was curious, so I decided to finally pick this book up.  I'm glad I did because I ended up really enjoying this one, to the point that I couldn't put it down (like a page-turner, which is rare for a non-fiction "self-help" book) and ultimately finished it in one sitting.  I also ended up taking a lot of notes, which surprised me given the topic.

The book's author, Priya Parker, is a facilitator and strategic advisor trained in the field of conflict resolution.  Because of this background, the advice she gives focuses more on the human aspects of gatherings (the hosts and guests) rather than the logistics (which she does cover, but to a lesser extent). In one of the chapters, where she talks about how most event planning guides lean more toward the logistics aspects such as what type of food to prepare and when to start, she writes: "This encapsulates the prevailing approach to gathering that I hope to change: fussing over the crudités and hoping for the best when it comes to the human beings.  We deserve better."  Indeed, we do!! 

I also really liked the way Parker broke down the information, going in order from deciding the purpose of the gathering and figuring out the guest list to the responsibilities of the host through to the closing.  The examples that Parker gave ran the gamut from simple (a family dinner, a weekly morning meeting at work) to extreme (large city-wide dinners, professional conferences involving hundreds of world leaders), which I found to be an interesting way to show how her techniques could be applied to any type of gathering — though at the same time, Parker does make clear that not all techniques will be applicable to every gathering, which I appreciated.

One of the things I was surprised to learn was how there could be so many different aspects to a gathering, which I had never thought about before — for example, with the opening and closing of a gathering, there could be multiple steps involved beyond just saying "welcome" and "thank you."  Parker explains the importance of focusing on a good opening and closing by pointing to studies about attention span and memory which "show that audiences disproportionately remember the first 5 percent, the last 5 percent, and a climactic moment of a talk.  Gatherings…work in much the same way.  And yet, we often pay the least attention to how we open and close them, treating these elements as afterthoughts."  I've actually heard this information before in other iterations but never correlated it to openings and closings of gatherings, so it was an eye-opener for me.

One of the sections that resonated most with me is when Parker talks about vulnerability, authenticity, and honesty during gatherings and how "the stranger spirit" is an important contributing factor to achieving this because "it is often easier to confess parts of our lives with strangers, who have no stake in our lives, than with intimates who do."  This is absolutely true for me, which is one reason why, social anxiety not withstanding, I tend do better at gatherings with casual acquaintances whom I probably will never see again versus gatherings of family, friends, and co-workers whom I have to face every day.  I wasn't expecting to encounter such resonant insight in a book about gathering!

Overall, I found this book quite fascinating. The title is actually perfect, as Parker truly does talk about gathering as an "art" form.  I also appreciated how Parker arranged the information in such a practical way that was both easy to understand and follow.  I highly recommend this book, as I feel there is valuable insight to be gleaned here, whether you usually play the role of host or guest (or, like me, neither).  This is not a typical event planning guide though, so if that's what you're interested in, definitely look elsewhere; but if you're interested in a thoughtful, well-written book about how to make gatherings more meaningful from a "people" perspective, then I absolutely suggest picking this one up.

Review: Atomic Habits (by James Clear)

My Rating:  4 stars

As I've mentioned in previous reviews of self-help books that I've read, I'm always a bit weary when I pick one of these books up because they can be a real "hit or miss" for me in terms of reading experience.  I would consider myself "picky" about books in general (mostly because I have a problem abandoning a book once I start it), but even more so when it comes to non-fiction reads, which for me in particular, requires extra effort and concentration. 

 

With this mindset, I went into James Clear's popular self-help book Atomic Habits not really expecting to get too much out of it – which is why I'm pleasantly surprised at how much I ended up enjoying this one.  Of course, as is the case with many self-help books, the concepts that Clear talks about in his book aren't brand new (I'm sure there are dozens of books out there covering the same topic) and in all honesty,  there was nothing particularly mind-blowing about the content itself.  Having said that, what made this book stand out for me was its simple, easy-to-understand format – basically, Clear took what can be a complicated topic and broke it down in a way that was clear, insightful, and practical.   As I was reading, I didn't feel like I had to jump through hoops in order to grasp the concepts or that I had to think too deeply on how to meaningfully apply the ideas to my daily life.  In fact, I already started applying some of it and, seeing the results, am motivated to continue.  I also really liked the structure of the book, with nice short chapters as well as relevant charts and tools interspersed at the right moments.  I also found the summary at the end of each chapter – which listed out main "takeaways" from the chapter in simple bullet points – extremely useful in terms of helping to remember the important points in each section.

 

In a way, I guess this is one of those instances of reading "the right book at the right time".  Given how chaotic the end of the year usually is for me (both at home and at work), finding the time to read at all can be challenging, so it definitely helps to read a book that I can easily get through and parse, for one, and two, can be readily applied to situations I'm working through currently. 

 

While quite a few aspects of this book definitely resonated with me, especially in this moment of my life, I'm sure it will be different for others, so I would say keep that in mind when deciding whether to pick this one up or not.  I found this book to be a worthwhile read, of course, but even if it doesn't particularly resonate with others, I feel like there are some insights that can be helpful.

 

 

Review: The Checklist Manifesto (by Atul Gawande)

My Rating:  4 stars

Looking through my reading log the past couple weeks, I realize that I've been a bit behind with my reading the past couple weeks. This was due mainly to a few projects that I had to be involved with at work, which ended up requiring a bigger time commitment than I originally anticipated.  Luckily, those projects will be completed by next month, so I will be able to get back on track very soon!

With that said, one of the books I was able to squeeze in during this time period was Atul Gawande's nonfiction bestseller The Checklist Manifesto.  Though this book came out 12 years ago, I actually only heard about it recently, when it was discussed on one of the book podcasts I listen to.  I will admit that, going into this book, I was expecting it to be a "how-to" manual of sorts on designing checklists, so I was anticipating a long and arduous read (as most nonfiction books in the "self-help" category usually are for me).  To my surprise though, this book proved to be the complete opposite of what I thought it would be.  The "how-to" piece was actually less than 10% of the book; majority of the book was filled with fascinating anecdotes about several industries (primarily medicine and aviation) and how checklists contributed to various successes in those industries.  It was obvious to me that Gawande is a passionate advocate for the use of checklists and while most of his focus here is of course on his profession (he is a renowned surgeon) and how checklists helped him in his line of work, I still found quite a bit of relevance in what he wrote.  I think that anyone who works in a highly complex field (or has tasks that require a fair amount of complexity) can definitely benefit from incorporating checklists in the way that Gawande describes.  In fact, before I even got to the end of the book, I already started thinking about possible ways to incorporate checklists to a few of my own tasks at work.

One of the things I appreciate most about this book is how well-written it is.  Medicine and aviation are two fields that I would normally find boring to read about in such painstaking detail, but Gawande managed to make the subject matter interesting to the point that I wanted to keep turning the pages to see how things would turn out.  I actually ended up finishing this book in one sitting, which usually never happens with me when reading nonfiction books!  I think what also helped is that Gawande writes in an honest, down-to-earth manner with a good amount of self-deprecating humor sprinkled throughout, which is very different from the "preachiness" of many "self-help" books out there (especially the business-related ones, most of which tend to have a condescending tone that usually turns me off the getgo).

While definitely not perfect by any means, there is a lot of good insight here — to me, this is a useful book that is well worth a read-through regardless of what profession you are in.  Though with that said, Gawande does describe some of the medical situations he encounters in explicit detail, so just a word of warning, in case stuff like that makes you queasy (I personally read through these scenes quickly and in a few cases, skipped some of the descriptions altogether).  Overall, this book was both helpful and entertaining (plus, at about 200 pages, it's relatively short), so definitely a recommended read!  

Review: Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals (by Oliver Burkeman)

My Rating:  3.5 stars



I'm picky when it comes to reading "self-help" books, mainly because I feel that, implicit in most books in this category, the main goal is to tell the reader what to do (or not do to) with their lives.  Of course, in and of itself, there's nothing wrong with this, but for me, it's all about the tone and approach — I hate the feeling of something being crammed down my throat (I don't care if it's something good or bad for me), which is why I can't stand books that are "overly preachy" in any way.  This is also why I'm extremely wary when it comes to reading nonfiction books (that aren't biographies or memoirs), as the tone and approach can very easily derail an otherwise good reading experience for me. 

I say all this because my initial expectation going into Oliver Burkeman's time management book Four Thousand Weeks was that it would presumably fall into the above-mentioned category, mainly because most books on time management that I've read over the years are written from a business angle and usually promote the idea of being "as productive and efficient" as possible at work.  To my great surprise however, this book actually went the completely opposite direction — instead of encouraging people to "make more time in order to get more done" (the message I hear over and over again in most business books), this book embraces the concept that time is finite, humans are only on this earth for a certain amount of time (Burkeman uses "four thousand weeks" as a gauge) and because of that, we should face the fact that it's realistically impossible to get everything we want to do done.  Expanding on this idea, instead of obsessing over how much time it will take to do something or worrying about not having enough time to accomplish what you set out to accomplish (whether it's a small task at work or a life goal), Burkeman advocates making the conscious (and often difficult) decision to do what matters most in that moment and accept the consequences of that decision, whether good or bad.  

Many of the examples Burkeman gave were relevant to what I often struggle with, which I definitely appreciated.  One personal example that especially resonated with me:  I've always referred to myself as an "aspiring author" because my dream is to write and publish a book at some point, but given my chaotic and busy work + family life, I've been putting off starting that book I've always wanted to write until a "more opportune time" when work is less busy and family life is less chaotic (which to me, pretty much means when I reach retirement at work and my family is self-sufficient enough where I don't have to worry about making sure their lives are comfortable). This book posits the idea that the "most opportune time" might never come, which is something I honestly never thought about until now.  It makes sense though — for me, work will always be busy (especially in my field of work — which I will loosely define as "trade and commerce"…unless the world suddenly comes to a halt and stops functioning, which we of course know will never happen, I will always have an infinite amount of things to do at work) and when it comes to family life, the reality is that it will always be filled with one crisis or another (since that's how life works) — so why not accept the fact that work and life will occur the way it does and instead of trying to "control" time (by assuming that work and family will fall into place to the point that the "most opportune time" will come for me to start my book project), just make the decision to start writing a little bit each day and go from there.  

Much of Burkeman's advice in this book actually runs counter to traditional time management advice (which focuses a lot on productivity and efficiency) that we often find in most business books.  Not only that, I like how his book doesn't just focus on work — much of what he writes about can be applied to personal life as well, which also makes it stand out from said books.  

With that said, structure-wise, there were actually quite a few flaws in this book, which is what prevented me from being able to rate it higher than I did, despite finding some of the concepts personally resonant.  At times, I felt like Burkeman was all over the place with his ideas, and there were moments where he seemed to contradict himself — or perhaps these moments were just him, as a former "productivity guru", trying to work out his own changed philosophy toward time management on the page.  And I also agree with what a few other reviewers pointed out — that there is a fair amount of repetition in the book, which made the reading a bit tedious at times.

Overall, despite not being perfect by any means, this was a good book with quite a bit of food for thought as well as many examples that I felt could be applicable to my life.  While I didn't necessarily agree with every concept presented in this book — and admittedly, there were moments where I felt that Burkeman got a bit too philosophical, almost to the point of losing me in the process — I did appreciate the different angle to time management that he explored.  

This book will mean different things to different people, which is reflected in the wide spectrum of ratings for it on Goodreads (I saw one star to five stars and everything in between).  I decided to go the "happy medium" route, which I feel is most appropriate for my experience with this book. If you choose to read this one,  know that your experience may be vastly different from mine and that's perfectly okay — if you are able to glean at least one resonant concept from this book like I did, then it will be time well-spent reading it.

Review: Joy at Work (by Marie Kondo and Scott Sonenshein)

My Rating: 3.5 stars

I received this book as a Christmas gift from one of my friends who is a huge Marie Kondo fan. While I did enjoy this one quite a bit, some parts I felt were repetitive and mostly stuff I had heard before — this was mostly chapters 4 and on, where Kondo's co-writer Scott Sonenshein writes about tidying as it pertains to digital work, time management, decisions, and networks. To be honest, when I read the "note to reader" at the beginning of the book and discovered that, out of 11 chapters, Kondo only "primarily wrote" 4 of the chapters, I did feel a bit disappointed — I mean, I knew going in that this would be a collaborative effort between Kondo and Sonenshein, but I guess I was expecting the writing to be either more evenly distributed between the two or Kondo being the primary author, since she does have more of the name recognition after all (case in point — I know my friend, for one, bought this book purely because of Marie Kondo's name of the cover…she has absolutely no clue who Scott Sonenshein is). The other thing too is that, as I was reading, I noticed distinct differences between Kondo's writing style and Sonenshein's, so when both were mashed together for this book, I felt that the flow was kind of odd and, for me at least, it did affect the reading experience more than I was expecting it to.

Having said all that, content-wise, I felt like this was one of the better "how to organize your work life" books that I've read (and I've read plenty of similar books over the course of my 20+ years working in corporate America). What made this one different in my opinion was the tone and the approach. Business self-help books (at least the ones I've read) tend to be "overly preachy" to the point that they can turn a reader like me off fairly quickly — not just because the content can sometimes be unrealistic and/or irrelevant to my job situation (i.e. turn off your email for a few hours or shut your office door to visitors for the day!), but also because the tone is often heavy-handed, with a "one method fits all" approach where oftentimes, you are made to feel like something is wrong with you if you don't follow the writer's advice. With this book, I didn't get that vibe at all — in fact, I got the opposite vibe in that the emphasis was on how everyone's situation is different and to do what works best for you (or not). As I've said before, I can't stand "overly preachy" books, especially ones with what I perceive as a pretentious tone that essentially try to guilt-trip the reader towards a particular direction, so it was refreshing to see that this one didn't take that route.

Overall, I did like this book, but as I mentioned above, I definitely would've liked it better if Kondo had been the sole author. Though I'm not a Marie Kondo fanatic like my friend, I do have a lot of admiration and respect for her work and appreciate what she has been able to achieve over the last decade. And while the effectiveness of her methods is subjective in that it might or might not be a right fit for certain people, I think what she has going for her (and why her methods are easier to accept) is her positive attitude (with a focus on joyfulness) as well as her non-aggressive approach that is very different from what we may be used to here in the United States. If Kondo does write another book at some point, I look forward to reading it. Meanwhile though, I should probably go check out her show on Netflix (I'm not a huge TV watcher anymore nowadays, as I don't have the time that I used to, but I'm willing to make an exception in this case).

Review: Joyful (by Ingrid Fetell Lee)

My Rating:  4 stars

Full disclosure:  self-help books aren't usually my cup of tea.  Not that there is anything wrong with self-help books, it's just that I usually don't get much out of these types of books, for one, and two, non-fiction books of any kind generally take me much longer to read, so I prefer not to spend precious reading time on them when I could use that time to instead choose something from my mile-high, teetering TBR stack. Given this context, I very likely would not have picked up Ingrid Fettell Lee's Joyful on my own if it hadn't been chosen as a monthly read for one of my book clubs. While the subject matter (the aesthetics of joy and how to find it in our surroundings) is one that I'm definitely interested in reading about (which usually also plays a huge role in whether I choose to read a non-fiction book or not), I worried about the timing and the impact to my already tightly-packed reading schedule.  

Now that I've finished, I'm actually glad I decided to pick this one up, as I ended up enjoying it quite a bit.  I think this was due to the fact that I didn't approach this book from a "self-help" perspective in terms of how I could apply the author's advice to bring more joy into my own life, but rather, I went into it from the perspective of a "fascinating learning experience" about the aesthetics of joy and examples of how each element manifests itself in the real world.  Prior to this, I had never read a book that broke down the elements of joy in such detail and I definitely learned a lot, even though some of the examples that the author provided didn't have much practical application for me personally.  My favorite chapter was the one about "play", probably because I could relate most to what was described in there, but I also liked the later chapters where the author brought all the concepts together and showed us how to recognize the different aesthetics in a single environment.

Another aspect I liked about this book was the writing, which flowed seamlessly and, perhaps most importantly, was accessible.  For me, the way a non-fiction book is written has a huge impact on whether that particular book will be a "hit" or a "miss" for me (even if he subject matter is one that I'm interested in). What I appreciated about Joyful is that it didn't feel overly scientific when I was reading it, even though some parts of it did cite statistics and results of scientific research.  While the book did take me longer to read than usual, tit wasn't because the concepts were hard to understand or anything — rather, I tend to take longer to read non-fiction books overall because of my own obsession with absorbing every single detail so as to make it worth my while, which of course requires additional focus and concentration on my part.

I'm definitely glad I read this one and would definitely recommend it, especially to those who like reading non-fiction.  While each person's reaction to the concepts that Ingrid Fettell Lee presents here will undoubtedly vary (especially depending on whether you've read other works on the same subject in the past or not), I liked this one more than some of the other "self-help" books I've read.  Also, given the year I've had, I feel it's quite appropriate that I got the chance to incorporate a book about joy into my reading journey, regardless of whether the concepts covered in the book "helped" me or not.  A worthwhile read overall! 

Review: The Lazy Genius Way (by Kendra Adachi)

 

My Rating:  3.5 stars

This week has been a bit of a struggle for me reading-wise due to some personal issues I’ve had to deal with that has been a huge drain on both my time and energy.  Prior to this issue cropping up, I had started Kendra Adachi’s The Lazy Genius Way and since it’s a relatively short book, I figured I would be able to finish it quickly.  In hindsight now, I realize that was wishful thinking, as I ended up slogging through this book and taking way more time than I should have to finish it.  Just to be clear though, this is one of those situations where it’s me, not the book.  In general, non-fiction books always take me a longer time to get through, mainly because I feel that I have to grasp and absorb each detail in order to make the reading experience worthwhile – unlike fiction where I don’t need to make a conscious effort to remember every detail, just enough to get into the story and its characters.

In any case – even though it took me longer than I would’ve liked to read, I did enjoy Adachi’s book overall.  In addition to being well-written, one of the things I appreciated most about this book is that it doesn’t follow the traditional “preachy” self-help book path -- you know, those books that always come across as though the author  (usually an academic) is trying to persuade you to live your life a certain way because they (supposedly) know more than you do.  With her book, Adachi takes the opposite approach in that the main message is about doing what matters to you, NOT what matters to someone else.  Using her own experiences as examples, she lays out 13 principles she lives by that help her “be a genius about what matters and lazy about what doesn’t.”  I found the advice practical and the way Adachi went about conveying it was engaging enough to keep me interested in what she had to say.

With all that said however, the sticking point for me is that, unfortunately, a lot of what was talked about in the book didn’t resonate with me.  Technically, this isn’t the book’s fault – it’s more I don’t have much in common with the perspective that Adachi writes from (white, middle class, Christian wife and mother), plus I consider my personal situation a bit unique, so it was hard for me to see how some of the principles fit into my life.  With self-help books, resonance to the subject matter is absolutely important for me, so much so that when I’m not able to relate to a lot of the book, I feel like I just wasted my time reading it.  Of course, this is not to say that timing could’ve played a role as well, since, as I mentioned earlier, I’m going through some things right now where my frame of mind may not be as receptive to books like this at the moment. 

Overall, I would still recommend this one, as I feel that, as far as self-help books go, this is definitely a good one.  Also, I don’t doubt the usefulness of Adachi’s advice or the fact that the Lazy Genius method does work for many people, it’s just I’m not able to see the relevance and application to my life as it is at this moment.  I do want to try listening to Adachi’s Lazy Genius podcast at some point though to see if perhaps that format will work out better for me.

Review: Why We Can't Sleep (by Ada Calhoun)

My Rating: 3.5 stars

Self-help books have always been a bit of a “hit and miss” for me, which is why I’m very selective when it comes to choosing books from this genre to read.  Of course, first and foremost, the subject matter needs to be interesting and also relevant to my current situation – on this count, Ada Calhoun’s newest book Why We Can’t Sleep did deliver, however in some ways, it also fell a bit short of expectations for me.

As a member of Generation X (like the author herself), it’s refreshing to read a book that was able to articulate so much of what I have experienced and felt for most of my life up to this point.  Many of the insights that Calhoun presented were spot-on, to the point that I found myself nodding my head a lot in understanding and agreement.   In addition to being extremely well-researched, with the material laid out in a format that was organized and easy to read, one of the things I appreciated most about this book was the author’s approach to the subject matter – through interviews with hundreds of women, most of them from Generation X, all of whom candidly shared their stories about their struggles and challenges, Calhoun was able to establish a sense of resonance with readers that other books on the same subject mostly lacked.   

On a personal level, I’m the type of reader who tends to shy away from books that I consider to be too “scientific” in nature, especially ones that are overloaded with a lot of facts, figures, statistics, etc., as I usually find these books boring and as a result, I lose focus really quickly.  This book was different in that Calhoun didn’t just regurgitate a bunch of facts and results from studies to support them – rather, she incorporated her own personal experiences  as well as those of many other women from different walks of life to create a more anecdotal read, which I feel worked well.  With that said though, I think one of the things this book lacked was, ironically, the “self-help” portion, in that it didn’t really present solutions on how to overcome the challenges that Generation X often faced overall. Yes, Calhoun does talk about what worked for her, and with a few of the other women interviewed, she also covered how they ended up improving their particular situations, but a lot of it was very specific to them and their lives.  Basically, this book was insightful in terms of explaining the “why” portion, but it didn’t really go into the “what to do about how we’re feeling” portion, at least not in a way that was helpful in my circumstances. 

Overall, I feel that this book is definitely worth a read, but I think how much readers would be able to relate to it depends on their personal situations (which I believe is why the reviews for this book are all over the place).  I certainly got some things out of it (mostly knowledge in that I found out some stuff I didn’t know before), but as I said earlier, I also found quite a few things lacking.  I would still recommend this book, but with a warning not to go into it with too many pre-established expectations – if it works for you, then great, but if it doesn’t, that should be fine too.