DNF.

This book started out so well. The digital world overtook us all in 2020 due to the pandemic and many discovered it wasn’t the utopia we thought it would be. Overall, the book balanced personal anecdotes with conversations with “experts” in a way that made it interesting. Each chapter contained a part of the new digital-driven landscape and even provided some perspectives at the end as to how to balance or refocus the digital vs. analog. However, the whole book blew up for me in the epilogue. Sax got a little too “this all sucks. It’s all because of shitty politics” that it completely ruined what was otherwise a solid premise.

I wish he had given some thought to how a lot of these technologies helped people who may not have otherwise had access— people with disabilities or other limitations. Sure, an online event may not be as all-encompassing as an in-person event but for some, it’s the only option. And the ability to expand events that had previously been in person that can now provide some online content — conferences, conventions, etc. if he had talked to people who had attended his book talks after the online events, maybe he would have felt differently about “talking into the void”.

As I am still thinking about this book weeks after I read it, maybe it did what t needed to do— get me thinking and raging on both sides of the issue but still…. I was left wanting more and better from Sax.

I didn’t need a “pandemic book”

I really enjoyed Sax’s first analog book, The Revenge of Analog. This one felt to close to home with that book but some added avenues such as the city and soul. The pandemic narrative was tiring and probably the last thing I wanted to read about. It’s a tireless trope already and did not help this book. Lots of good things in this book but you’ll probably be better off with his first book with very similar ideas.

The book was boring and uninspiring.
Mostly it was anecdotes of Sax's pandemic experiences. His writing about these experiences was dull and long-winded. He failed to say anything at all other than the fact that being alone and doing everything on screens during the pandemic sucked. There is absolutely nothing new here. Nothing we didn't already know.

Furthermore Sax doesn't take a hard stance on anything. And he didn't discuss the future at all. He spent most of the book reflecting on the past (pandemic) and then the present (in this case recent post-pandemic). There were a lot of arguments he could have made but didn't. I don't recall him talking about digital currency for example (correct me if I'm wrong, I did a lot of skimming.)

Overall the book fell flat of any expectations I had for it, and I wasn't really expecting that much.

I didn't disagree with the points he made. It was not very factually based, more based on the authors experiences. It felt like more of an emotional processing of COVID than anything else..I was hoping for a bit more.