This was an interesting read, although not what I had expected. It seemed like a portfolio for Cohen's work that he would show potential hires. There wasn't a coherent thread with the essays, diary entries, and letters in this book and I'm not sure how they pertained to the idea of attention, but individually on their own, his long form essays were well-written and informative. Not my usual type of read, but I'm glad I gave it a try.

How to praise this collection without giving anything away is my problem. I will just loan you my literary starting point. I was not too hot on thisd book because usually (for me) these collection come across as one sided and pompous. However Mr. C caught me with this in the preface:

“We’re becoming too disparate, too dissociated—searching for porn one moment, searching for genocide the next—leaving behind stray data that cohere only in the mnemotech of our surveillance.”

Enough said!

This book is not bad, it’s just not what I was expecting from the title. I was expecting a collection of essays focusing on attention, information excess, and things like that. Instead, the book has several essays, letters, diary notes, etc, on several random topics, from Donald Trump to the letter j. While I liked some of the short diary notes, I didn’t really enjoy reading some long political pieces. If you are familiar with the author and what he writes, then this book might be great for you.

I received an advance ecopy via NetGalley so I could read the book before its release date.

This book seems to be a series of essays that just go from one thing to the next. I couldn't really enjoy this book. It didn't seem very cohesive. I was disappointed.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a review copy in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion of it.

The dispatches here are a series of essays and other short items: interesting sometimes, but not what I expected. It doesn’t seem to fall together, and I ‘m struggling to trudge through these disconnected parts. I will look for other offerings by this writer, but this book was unfortunately not enough for me to pay attention. I appreciate the chance to try out the netgalley advance copy.

OK, I've been trying - and trying - but cannot grasp the purpose of this book, or find the energy to continue to read it. Ironic, considering the title/subject matter I know, but I can't help it. I've more than given it the ol' college try...

The concept is great, and there are moments of brilliance. BUT... (and yes, that's a BIG "but") The execution and organization are all over the place with this one... A vast majority of it feels like a political rant/ramble - in many ways, redolent of another one I had difficulty with recently, Fake by Kati Stevens. Yes, Trump is a problem. Yes, current sociopolitical and popular culture are in tatters, as are attention spans, logical consistency, information overload without any sense of context or validity, intellectual endeavors and interests, and a general sense of goodness, kindness, and optimism. I agree with all of those things. But I can't listen to one more rambling rant about them, because they all sound the same. And they all sound the same because so many of us agree on the problem(s). I get it, I do - but I am getting extra weary of the focus on how bad it is without any attempts at coming up with solutions or adaptation ideas or survival strategies...

I found this book difficult to read. There are chapter-long presentations on things like the decline of Atlantic City and the rise and fall of Ringling Brothers circus, interspersed with truly random and (to me) largely indecipherable "From the Diaries" anecdotes. While the AC and circus bits were interesting enough, I don't see what on earth they have to do with the challenges in maintaining attentiveness in an increasingly data-glutted and attention-deficit culture. The book felt random and all over the place, like a rant from a favorite uncle or old schoolteacher. You may like him and find him generally sympathetic and similarly opinionated as you. His stories may be interesting and insightful. But you still tend to veer off with a nervous laugh and wave at an imaginary friend across the room after a while, because there's only so much tangential story-telling you can take in one sitting...