Rating: 
Summary: Worth reading when you're stressed
Review: I read this book and loved it. I read it at a time in my life when I seemed to be always unable to keep up with all of the demands on my time and still take time to have a life. It is true that this book devolves by the end to a collection of stand-alone chapters that each explore a slightly different facet of the apparent quickening of pace in today's world. And there's a fair number of statistics and factoids, some of which you probably could have guessed by looking at the world around you. And it doesn't wrap up with a tidy conclusion that ties it all together. But it does explore the problem fairly thoroughly and I found that to be extremely worthwhile. It gave me a perspective on why I seemed always to be in a hurry and always late that I found very helpful and I think I have been better able to see and avoid the hidden things that eat all of my time. If you're always in a hurry and always late and don't know why, I highly recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: FSTR BRNG
Review: I read this book partially because I had to for a class, partially a suggestion from my dad because he'd read Gleick's other books. I read about halfway through it and, I must say, for a book about how the world is getting too fast, this book jumped around pretty quickly. It'd be talking about watches for about 6 pages (which was the longest chapter I got to), then the next chapter would come, it'd be less than half that length and about TV and newscasters. Seriously, it seemed like it had ADD! I grew up in this faster-paced world and I know that it's faster than what used to be. I hear stories, I know that television didn't exist a hundred years ago, and I certainly don't need 281 telling me that my generation has it bad because everything's sped up, especially when the chapters could most definately be cut in half because all you need to read is about the first half of any chapter to get what you'd like out of it. Not to keep rambling, but we all know the world's faster, so why don't we just slow down what we can and don't waste our time reading this book?
Rating:
Summary: Matter Moves Faster Inward
Review: I've read this book several times over the last year or two. I enjoy it every time. There are many interesting anecdotes about how life has accelerated almost beyond control. Curiously enough, the book itself goes at a slow pace. There is a refreshing difference between the relaxed pace of the book and the frantic pace of the subject matter. Reading it straight through might not be the best way to approach this book. I enjoy reading one chapter at a time at night as a way to relax from my own fast-paced life.
Rating: 
Summary: whoosh
Review: If you can carve out a few hours from your busy schedule and read this book, you'll find it time well spent. And you'll also find yourself thinking much more pointedly about your time. "Faster" is really about time, about its importance and the pressures modern society places on our time. We live in what's called the Information Age where everything moves at the speed of light, and Gleick does an outstanding job of showing how the sheer speed of activity in our lives has changed us. It's not a pretty picture. Think about all the time-saving devices that have come about in the last 25 years-- microwave, fax machine, copier, e-mail-- and then think about how much extra time these wonders have created. They haven't freed up time-- they've made it possible to fill time with more activity. Gleick's observations about how technology has accelerated the pace of life are spot-on and more than a little frightening. Everyone talks about shortening attention spans, yet today there is so much to attract our attention that it's hard to choose what to focus on. Too many books to read, too many shows to see, too many ways to spend our leisure time, which has not increased fast enough to match the demands on it. "Faster" does an excellent job of illustrating what a serious problem this is, a problem that doubtless will get worse before it gets better.
Rating:
Summary: Perceptive & Poignant.
Review: James Gleick's Faster is well written, and even though the things he says may not be what some want to hear, his claims are all backed up with facts. This book was written in 1999, and so far things are unfolding just as he claims they will, ever faster. Sometimes he dawdles over certain points for too long and seems like an old crank, but the emphasis is necessary. He makes a several references to how people will continually push the elevator door close button to shave seconds off their wait.
No longer are there elevator operators, they took too up too much time by being polite. If you feel like you never have enough hours in the day, even though modern conveniences should be giving us more free time, then this is a book you should read. The pace of the writing emphasizes the theme of this book as he jumps from topic to topic trying to cover as much as possible without losing your attention. As a society we are a Type-A personality, always trying to get things faster, whatever that may cost us in the long run.
Rating:
Summary: gleick has learned to write
Review: lucid prose. fascinating ideas. My favorite anecdote from the book -- in Japan, the paint on the close door button in elevators is often worn off. Elevators themselves make one of the more interesting sections of the book. The problem with faster elevators is not so much being able to move the elevator that fast, but other things -- making sure that the slight vibrations don't cause it to hit the side of the shaft, figuring out some way to stop people's ears from popping. Each chapter offers a new insight or set of insights. I think it is near impossible to be bored reading this book
Rating: 
Summary: Not Gleick's best
Review: This seems like the perfect topic for the times. The cover is catchy, the writer excels at making seemingly abstract topics topical (Chaos is superb) and he's gives great NPR. The first chapter or two, which I read before buying the book, was mesmerizing. That made my disappointment with Faster all the greater. Gleick writes a series of great short newspaper-length stories, binds them together and calls it a book. To be sure, there is a bevy of fascinating factoids here. But Gleick never really creates a thesis and never really advances any particular argument. Some of the scenes he paints are memorable, but nothing really holds them together as a book. I tried to overcome that by reading a chapter a day on the subway and not even that worked. It's almost like he's trying to write a "fast" book that the reader can zip through. Well, in that area he succeeds, but in so doing he fails to move the book in any particular direction. Gleick is a well-known writer with a good track record. I'm sure sales of this book have been good. But I hope that doesn't stop someone else from tackling a similar subject.
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