ladydusk's Reviews > Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life

I would probably really give it a 3.5; It probably deserves a 4.5

I was really excited about this book when I bought it. I had heard her interviewed on Mars Hill Audio, the TOC was awesome, and it just looked great.

Halfway through this book, I was struggling. I expected sparkling; I found it a slog.

I determined to persist. I'm glad I did.

Many of her examples were not in my frame of reference - Elena Ferrante's The Neapolitan Quartet, some movies I'd not heard of, etc - her careful explanations were both necessary and tedious to make her point. Sometimes I got lost in the example without seeing the reason thereof. If I had been more conversant with her source material, I suspect I would have enjoyed this book greatly.

However. By the finale, it said a lot of things about ideas I've been thinking on about the intellectual life, aids to, hinderances to, need for, simplicity of, etc. This work may not be sparklingly pithy and quotable, but it's because it's more serious for that forcing the reader to contemplation and introspection.

As a mom of soon-to-be college bound children, her scourging of academia gives much grist for the mill.

There was much here I didn't understand, but that doesn't make it less thought provoking; rather more. I find the deficiencies are mine. As usual.