⭐⭐⭐
The attention economy is one of my biggest interests, so I was intrigued by this book when the NetGalley newsletter came round advertising it. Attensity! seems to be a book aimed at introducing people to the concept of attention and attention “fracking” as they put it, and (positively) radicalising them to this very important cause. I love the premise!
I consider myself well-read and well-educated, but had to look up quite a lot of the vocabulary used. I appreciate that the book was written by a team of highly intelligent (and passionate!) people, but I fear the audience they are trying to reach may not have as much patience as a dedicated reader like myself to pause reading every so often to look up definitions.
As other reviewers have already said, this book also definitely needed references and a bibliography for the sources; it would have made the anecdotes more authoritative.
I have to say that the final 25% of the book was the most engaging. I most enjoyed the chapters that focused on traditional art, and on specific attention activists and how their careers and hobbies demonstrate positive, deep use of attention. My interest (or should I say attention?!) was also piqued by the chapters about study as a form of attention, how important it is and how else it can be interpreted, and the one about distraction as a valid form of attention. This last quarter of the book convinced me to round up to 3 stars.
Thank you Particular Books and the authors for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
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