Peter Slade

Essential listening

Revisado: 07-25-17

Carl Sagan's sense of wonder for the cosmos as well as his profound respect for all life in it come through brilliantly in this book. From the insights of the ancient Greeks and the library of Alexandria to the ideas of Keppler, Newton, Darwin and Einstein; from conjecture about how life started on Earth to how many other planets in the universe might have evolved technological societies, Sagan introduces everything as stories that almost anyone can follow and appreciate.

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esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Interesting ideas – with some attempted solutions

Revisado: 11-05-13

Part pop psychology, part behavioral economics, part self-help book, 'The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less' points out all the ways in which a super-abundance of choice is often not a good thing, touching on responsibility, regret, gratitude, opportunity costs, expectations, social status, search costs, subjective vs. objective satisfaction and more. We're introduced to the concepts of 'maximizers' and 'satisficers' – people who need to know that they've made the best possible choice from all the alternatives, and people who make choices based on standards they have set themselves. (As the author points out, we're often maximizers in some areas and satisficers in others.) He makes compelling arguments that satisficers are happier than maximizers with the choices they make, and goes on to suggest strategies for training yourself to become a satisficer in more areas of your life.

I thought this last part was less convincing – as someone married to an inveterate maximizer, I'm not convinced it would be possible to change this personality trait. Still, just being aware of the problems of trying to be a maximizer is no doubt a step in the right direction.

Some of the book feels a little repetitive, and some areas are a little wordy (over explaining some pretty obvious points) – I thought it could probably have been edited down by 10-15%.

As for this Audible production, I really liked the narrator (in contrast to many other reviewers, it seems). He kind of reminded me of Frasier's younger brother, Niles. OK, I can see how that might be annoying . . . but I thought it suited the material well.

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Hard to fault

Revisado: 11-12-12

Would you listen to Bring Up the Bodies again? Why?

I already listened to it twice back-to-back – the first time I've done that with an Audible book.

What about Julian Rhind Tutt’s performance did you like?

Julian is a terrific narrator, breathing life into the various characters with accents and voices that weren't over the top. The narration has more dynamic range than some, so some of the quieter bits can get lost if you're in a somewhat noisy environment listening on headphones – but this is not a criticism of the narrator.

Any additional comments?

Would like to have had the book in its unabridged version.

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