Rating: 
Summary: Hurry up and read this book!
Review: "Faster" is a book about the modern culture of speeding up to save milliseconds. James Gleick finds so many interesting aspects of this "age of acceleration" that we are now living in... further, he wastes no time in describing the many facets of this new lifestyle and the possible ramifications of what he calls "hurry sickness".Why are we in such a rush?? Are we really saving time? And just what do we DO with those few seconds we seem to save by multitasking even the smallest of our daily activities? "Faster" answers many of those questions and it also looks into other scientific aspects of time and how we perceive it. I highly recommend this book for those who feel rushed in their lives but don't know why. I also recommend it for anyone interested in the science of time and time travel. James Gleick is a genius. He has an incredible way of provoking the reader to look closer into something and see what is really happening there. Hurry up and read this book, you'll be amazed at what you'll learn.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: After "Chaos" and the epic "Genius" I expected great things from "Faster". It is a moderately entertaining read, and reasonably carefully written (no obvious mistakes or errors of reasoning). However, it is a cheap effort after the author's previous two books. It reads like a write-up of what the author found on an extended web-search and researching session, rather than making any insightful observations or drawing the material into some kind of conclusion or deep analysis. There is a lot of banal, obvious material - who needs to have MTV explained to them, or cannot figure out for themselves that a book titled "365 ways to save time" is unlikely to be more than landfill? I'd like to make some minor points - one is the uncanny resonance of many parts of the book with Don Delillo's "Underworld", the second is that the author makes the perhaps forgivable error of assuming that his audience is based in the USA, making many references to "our society" or "the country" which grate a little on some of the citizens of any possible obscure countries outside the USA that may exist. Finally, there is a flash of the author's real talent where the concept of a software "race condition" is clearly and accurately explained in lay terms - a difficult task.
Rating: 
Summary: A Breathlessly Superficial Collection of Tidbits
Review: After hearing so many people rave above Gleick's two previous books, "Chaos" and "Genius", I was very much taken aback by this unstructured collage of factoids and tidbits. Written in a whiny and grating first-person address to the reader, the book regurgitates endless anecdotal and semi-documented examples of how modern life has accelerated the pace of everyday life. It's somewhat bizarre (or perhaps nudge-nudge, wink-wink, ironic) that the book is divided into wee snippets of psuedo-chapters, reflecting/acknowledging?, the national decline in attention span. While some of these individual items are certainly interesting in their own merit-I liked the discussion of the original research into "Type A" personalities, the bit on telephone voice acceleration technology, and the brief economics of time part near the end-the overall effect is like reading a scrapbook of magazine sidebars and mini-features with no framework other than the self-evident notion that in the industrialized West, we live at a "faster" pace than any previous generation. Nowhere is there any discussion of how we might, as a society, turn away from this trend, or even if we should. (Gleick implicitly characterizes this trend as a negative one throughout). A breathlessly superficial survey which offers no analysis or insight.
Rating:
Summary: Breezy. Fast. And bright yellow.
Review: Aha! We knew it all along! Life, work, off-time - 'things' - just seem a hell of a lot faster these days. Those of us with typical 21st century urban, technology led lifestyles are all too familiar with the constant background noise of accelerated living. In Faster, Gleick amasses a mixed bag of armchair philosophy, anecdotal antics and random research to document our strangely mercurial existence. And a mixed bag it is indeed. The book shines best when Gleick exposes in detail those 'hidden' time-saving procedures that underpin our everyday lives. The passage on telephone directory enquiries, where we discover the drive to shave mere milliseconds from customer's inbound requests, is a real eye-opener. As is the revelation that time-saving procedures have even encroached on the age old traditions of the leisurely 9-inning baseball game. And who would have thought that a restaurant in Tokyo now offers an all-you-can-eat service charging customers by the minute? Dining by time-clock? Well, thanks, but no thanks. Still, I would have liked to have seen these sketches gather momentum and lead to a more cogent line of thought. Instead, they simply drift away and what remains is an assortment of charming but ultimately unsubstantial tales. Nothing more, nothing less. Readers looking for a more protracted cultural analysis, a deeper probe into psychological aetiology, or a broader review of our collective existential malaise will likely be disappointed. So, It's hardly a radical premise. And there's no real conclusion to speak of; no pulling together of the various threads that weave through this work. But as a collection of interesting hors d'oeuvres and after-dinner anecdotes, this is an entertaining enough read which - thankfully - requires a not considerable investment of time nor energy. Bloody good job too, as I had to cook supper and pay my gas bill online at the same time.
Rating:
Summary: Breezy. Fast. And bright yellow.
Review: Aha! We knew it all along! Life, work, off-time - `things' - just seem a hell of a lot faster these days. Those of us with typical 21st century urban, technology led lifestyles are all too familiar with the constant background noise of accelerated living. In Faster, Gleick amasses a mixed bag of armchair philosophy, anecdotal antics and random research to document our strangely mercurial existence. And a mixed bag it is indeed. The book shines best when Gleick exposes in detail those `hidden' time-saving procedures that underpin our everyday lives. The passage on telephone directory enquiries, where we discover the drive to shave mere milliseconds from customer's inbound requests, is a real eye-opener. As is the revelation that time-saving procedures have even encroached on the age old traditions of the leisurely 9-inning baseball game. And who would have thought that a restaurant in Tokyo now offers an all-you-can-eat service charging customers by the minute? Dining by time-clock? Well, thanks, but no thanks. Still, I would have liked to have seen these sketches gather momentum and lead to a more cogent line of thought. Instead, they simply drift away and what remains is an assortment of charming but ultimately unsubstantial tales. Nothing more, nothing less. Readers looking for a more protracted cultural analysis, a deeper probe into psychological aetiology, or a broader review of our collective existential malaise will likely be disappointed. So, It's hardly a radical premise. And there's no real conclusion to speak of; no pulling together of the various threads that weave through this work. But as a collection of interesting hors d'oeuvres and after-dinner anecdotes, this is an entertaining enough read which - thankfully - requires a not considerable investment of time nor energy. Bloody good job too, as I had to cook supper and pay my gas bill online at the same time.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting read, just wanted more of a conclusion.
Review: Basically a book on speed. Some of the facts were fascinating, especially when it got into the lengths we go to as a society to do things faster and be more efficient. I was hoping for a little more on the negative psychological aspects of this kind of mindset though. Still, pretty good.
Rating:
Summary: Interminable
Review: Clearly, I had false expectations. I had heard much of this book and expected something more insightful than the actuality. Gleick's book is anything but fast. It is slow, ponderous and desperately in search of meaning. It is one long series of trite anecdotes. As an airport book merely serving to while away some hours on a long distance flight, "Faster" may be useful. However, even this is probably stretching the reality. Overall, the book is anything but fast and I would encourage readers to search elsewhere for a more meaningful view of modern life.
Rating:
Summary: You have to make time to read this.
Review: How can we fit all the things we need to do into the 24 hours of each day and still leave time for the things we want to do, and have to do? The truth is we just can't and James Gleick dissects our typical day in a humorous and informative way to demonstrate how we can't possibly have time to read his book. This is much, much more approachable than 'Chaos' and you should 'make time' to give this your full attention and read it from cover to cover.
Rating:
Summary: GLCK ADDCT
Review: I had a similar experience with Gleicks' previous book 'Chaos': I had trouble putting it down and ended up reading the entire book in 2 days...in 'Faster' he has clearly mastered the style of writing loosely refered to as 'pop-science' ...while this 'anecdote mixed with fact' style has been imitated in many other books of this sort Gleick manages to grab the reader by both lapels and doesn't let go until they turn the last page...while the content of 'Faster' is less engaging than 'Chaos' his style keeps you turning pages...it is the perfect book for a transatlantic flight!
Rating:
Summary: Mind candy
Review: I listened to it on the way to work so I could do two things at once. How ironic... This is a good book to kill time, you may even laugh at yourself as you discover your own habits revealed and explained before your very eyes. I did The elevator door close button and the double button microwave cooking methods to save time tid bits are very funny!! As well as the "500 calories a day you starve 3000 a day you are as fat as a pig"
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