AnHeC (I'm too fucking busy and vice versa)

word count: 60 000 (only? or is my maths that much off?)

rating: in high doses results in overwhelming feelings of 'meh'

This book was OK. Just fine. Nothing exceedingly good or exceptionally bad about it. Don't get me wrong, I did have some fun with it, but only some.

It was a Christmas gift, so I promptly proceeded to read it. That was a mistake. First 60 pages (out of the whooping 187) enthralled me. I should have stopped then. The book is divided into ultra short (2-3 page long) chapters. Nice, small, digestible bits. Read one or two a day and it'll be fun. Read more, and you'll want to bang your head against the wall.

Why? Because it has no structure. It's just a collection of observations. No typical, chronological narrative. On one hand it makes it 'fun' and 'fresh', but for me it killed any chance of this book having a 'flow'. It's monotone. There are no distinguishable features of the numerous chapters. 

In short:

- no flow

- the author doesn't analyse things in depth (we hear just a few superficial details about any given thing, and then she moves on)

- too little facts, too much of the pseudo philosophical musings of the author (I almost DNF-ed at the last 7 pages)

- only a few anecdotes

- language – average, narrative has no captivating qualities, it's just grammatically correct (which in this day and age can be sometimes considered a great feat, but not by me, not yet)

So what’s my conclusion? This book is merely ok. I know a bit about Japan, so I got what the author was talking about. Would it be as understandable to others? Or maybe this is what made the book more boring for me? The lack of novelty could have killed some of my fun.

If you buy it my advice is don’t read it in one go, but slowly, and over an extended period of time. This way it can make a fairly pleasant read.