Nick Easterday

great inspiration to do something new

Revisado: 06-14-22

I host got back from a few months traveling around EurAsia and heard this guy on a travel podcast. the idea of quests resonated with me... especially after coming back to attempt some sense of normalcy.

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grim but insightful

Revisado: 10-22-21

it certainly isn't the most cheery of books but the historical examples are pretty spot on and especially after going through a pandemic and seeing a attempted coup within our own capital

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Read Cadillac Desert or The World Without Us

Revisado: 08-15-21

Dystopian Torture Porn
(this was my initial headline)

My mom use to tell me if you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything at all BUT.... I feel obligated to save people from wasting 15ish hours if their life with this book. So I will start will some praise, chat about what I didn't like, and give recommendations for books I wish I had re-listened to instead of spending my precious, finite time listening to this tragic tale.

At first this book filled me with dread. A depicted future so real, it actually made me thirsty while listening. I will 100% give the author praise for an initially engaging premise. I mostly kept listening because enough people who's judgement I valued told me it was good... and I was driving a lot. I'm actually bumping up my story score to a 3 from initial 1 star on second thought because I could have, bit didn't, stop listening. The narrator was also VERY good at performing the characters.

I'm not sure at what point I started to get frustrated with the drawn out narrative, the twisted romance, or the gratuitous torture scenes. I would say it what like a low budget Tarantino movie.. or more like the B grade straight to streaming movie in sure this will be.... except it robbed me of 15 hours of my life I would have rather spent listening to podcasts or a well written non fiction I could learn from. At least the longest Tarantino flick is beautifully filmed and you feel a strange sense of vindication at the end. I felt a similar way with Breaking Bad, while the characters and story were interesting enough to keep you coming back for more, you feel dirty & slightly more depressed about the human condition. When the oh-so-fucking obvious ending came, I was only happy it was over and I could write this review. I did mention above I thought many times about stopping the book.... but I was invested enough to hear if it ended as I assumed it would... vague and not even slightly satisfying.

SPOILER ALERT
Do yourself a favor and read Cadillac Desert instead..... then you will read about the real life fuckery that lead to the rise and inevitable demise of the overpopulated SW. Other great reads if you're interested in the downfall of civilization-- The World Without Us by Alan Weisman, Civilized To Death by Christopher Ryan, PhD, or the classic on eco terrorism, The Monkey Wrench Gang by a big fan of the desert, Edward Abbey.

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a cautionary tale of how civilizations collapse

Revisado: 03-26-21

The book starts like an Indiana Jones tale with snakes, bugs, quicksand, and disease. It ends with a shockingly prophetic cautionary tale about the spread of disease, especially since I'm finishing it as the world grimly "celebrates" over a year of being in the grips of a pandemic no where near as deadly as the ones this book talks of.

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A likely near future

Revisado: 02-28-20

Once I started this book I couldn't stop. Which was great for when I was on the elliptical! The world Ramez creates seems to be just within grasp and poses a lot of the likely issues that would come of it. I could easily see a movie coming from this.

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I didn't think I could learn more about dinosaurs!

Revisado: 01-08-20

I've been a fan of dinosaurs since I was a kid so this book was fantastic! The writing was very visual and took you through 150 million years of history easily.

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the best book for 2020

Revisado: 10-13-19

there are so many ideas that are spot on for 2020. even better is the author reads it!

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esto le resultó útil a 5 personas

better than the Peruvian tour guides

Revisado: 05-26-19

I'm in Cusco, Peru exploring the ruins attributed to the Incas as I listen. Great!!

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