Sumit

One of the best audiobooks I've listened to. Trevor Noah's childhood is akin to the favelas shown in “City of God”. The detail is rich. We move back and forth through the first quarter of his life and the way the story is structured is something to be marvelled at. He brings so much heart into that story that even if you are like me, an urban-dwelling, middle-class guy from India, you could still resonate with the stories. We have our fair share of prejudices, old grannies, ass-whipping mothers, car troubles etc. The part where he geeks out about girls or tech is so relatable, esp his CD piracy days for, ahem, we used to deal in that when we were in school here. That was the only way we consumed foreign stuff and we revelled in it. Not like now when I have Netflix, Prime, YOutube etc.

I was laughing where Trevor wanted me to, I bawled when he wanted me to. He had the story and my heart in his hands and he was twisting every emotion. I will now stop rambling and youtube like crazy where the characters of his story are now.

Trevor! Sun'qhela

The implications of the current pace of technology is presented in an interesting way. I kept thinking what would my reaction to such a sort of life would be. There are instances where you begin to question reality, free will and the mere essence of what means to be a human. If we are the dominant species, was it by our choice or it was coded within is, what if we go extinct, are we wholly responsible or does that just mean that our time is up. This book opens up your mind to a lot of questions and for the better.

Artwork is amazing. The story took an unexpected turn and although I liked the darker parts of it, there seemed to be a tone shift that didn't quite gel with the first half. Enjoyed it though. I would reckon a 10-12 year old would love Nimona and how she is portrayed.

Focusing on a particular set of things, this book explores how an epidemic (of things, ideas etc) spreads voraciously or “tips”. The argument made is quite convincing but this is, by no means, a wild page turner. Some sections are pretty interesting, others you can just skim over and not lose track of anything. All things said, things flow pretty neatly into each other and the idea presented is tied up into a nice, cohesive book.

What a ride this book is! It's like someone wrote up episodes of Black Mirror in prose. I got around to eventually reading this after watching Arrival, and also the repeated recommendations on the Tim Ferriss Show. Each story is based on a central concept, building a world of myriad possibilities. These get your head churning like no other.

Thrice I've read this now, discounting the dozens of other times I've gone back to it, opened a random page and breathed a sigh of relief.

This is as much a philosophical text as it is about writing. I know that I will go back to it again and again.