I think I might be finished with the genre of “wildly successful magazine essay author offered a book deal”.
It’s like eating too-thin soup, and unsatisfying to push through to the end.
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I think it’s part of a broader trend where these writers make money from their speaking arrangements, and just need the book to legitimise their profile. My take is to throw books into one of three categories, and read accordingly: commoncog.com/blog/the-3-kin
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Interesting taxonomy, not sure I’m 100% on board but will stew on it.
My other genre ban is anything with a subtitle of “the surprising X about Y”
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This will exclude books like Peak, though (written by Anders Ericsson on his research on Deliberate Practice).
It’s not a great book, and — like you — I didn’t like the subtitle, but I thought it was worth it to read what the man thought of his research.