46 used & new from £0.01
See All Buying Options
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
 
Faster: Our Race Against Time
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside another edition of this book

Faster: Our Race Against Time (Hardcover)

by James Gleick (Author) "You are in the Directorate of Time ..." (more)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


3 new from £4.00 42 used from £0.01 1 collectible from £16.00
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Paperback (New edition) £8.99 £6.97 60 used & new from £0.01

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Willing Slaves: How the Overwork Culture is Ruling Our Lives

Willing Slaves: How the Overwork Culture is Ruling Our Lives

by Madeleine Bunting
3.7 out of 5 stars (6)  £6.48
The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less

The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less

by Barry Schwartz
3.9 out of 5 stars (10)  £4.99
Chaos: Making a New Science

Chaos: Making a New Science

by James Gleick
4.5 out of 5 stars (17)  £6.47
Genius: Richard Feynman and Modern Physics

Genius: Richard Feynman and Modern Physics

by James Gleick
5.0 out of 5 stars (9)  £11.49
Time: A User's Guide

Time: A User's Guide

by Stefan Klein
4.2 out of 5 stars (4)  £6.97
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Hardcover: 334 pages
  • Publisher: Little, Brown (11 Oct 1999)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0316883352
  • ISBN-13: 978-0316883351
  • Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14 x 3.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,107,085 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Never in the history of the human race have so many had so much to do in so little time. That, anyway, is the impression most of us have of civilised life at the end of the millennium, and Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything only sharpens it. Elegantly composed and insightfully researched, Faster delivers a brisk volley of observations on how microchips, media and economics, among otherthings, have accelerated the pace of everyday experience over thecourse of the manic 20th century.

Author of the pop-science triumph, Chaos, James Gleick brings his formidable writing skills to bear here, creating an almost poetic flow of ideas from what in other hands might have been just amass of interesting facts and anecdotes. Whether tracing the modern history of chronometry (from Louis-François Cartier's invention of the wristwatch to the staggeringly precise atomic clocks of today's standards bureaus) or revealing the ways the camera has sped up our subjective sense of pace (from the freeze frames of Eadweard Muybridge's early photographic experiments to the jump cuts of MTV's latest videos), Gleick manages to weave in slyly perceptive oroccasionally profound points about our increasingly hopped-uprelationship to time. The result is the kind of thing only an accelerated culture like ours could have come up with: an instant classic. --Julian Dibbell, Amazon.com



Review

'A bite sized, zippy little book is packed with myriad manifestations of the Need for Speed' EXPRESS ** 'A book that you can dip in and out of at will, always coming up with an intriguing fact or statistic' SUNDAY TIMES **'Gleick offers a lot of witty observation that's worth more than a few of your precious minutes' FOCUS 'Reveals the growth of hurry sickness' OBSERVER ** ' A highly readable dissection of our speed-obsessed age' THE FACE --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
See all Product Description
Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
You are in the Directorate of Time. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
 
(3)
(3)
(3)
(2)
(2)
(2)
(2)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Faster: Our Race Against Time
61% buy the item featured on this page:
Faster: Our Race Against Time 4.0 out of 5 stars (11)
Spent
13% buy
Spent 4.0 out of 5 stars (4)
£6.02
The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less
10% buy
The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less 3.9 out of 5 stars (10)
£4.99
Isaac Newton
9% buy
Isaac Newton 4.0 out of 5 stars (7)
£5.97
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

11 Reviews
5 star:
 (4)
4 star:
 (5)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Speed read it and you will get the point., 17 Mar 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Faster: Our Race Against Time (Paperback)
Everything is accelerating - including us. The book makes its case lucidly, but what it doesn't do is go beyond the dozens of examples to give any practical insight into how we should deal with this speed culture. That means you get to the end feeling breathless but somehow a little dissatisfied.

Gleick makes the point that so much of the "faster" culture is based on information and communication. Once a letter took weeks to get form A to B. Now we expect instant communication and info - and we get it. But that brings its own problems, which are not really explored properly here.

I found a good companion text is "Inside Information" by David Smith and John Fletcher, two marketing/research guru types who pick up somewhat where Gleick leaves off, i.e. with how we actually should be dealing with this mass of accelerated information and has some real solutions.

Main message: be careful what you wish for...

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but light, 15 Oct 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Faster: Our Race Against Time (Paperback)
I used to live in a big, fast, driven American city, now I live on a tiny island in the middle of an ocean, where the pace is much more casual and the rush of modern civilization an annoying irritant on those occasions when I must travel. Gleick makes me appreciate my own (ongoing) recovery from hurry sickness and brings into focus some of the pointlessness of the breathless, rushed lifestyle.

Reminiscent of a collection of the kind of articles you'll find at the back of popular science magazines -- interesting, but light, a weekly column from James Gleick, in handy book form, obviating the weekly rush to the newstand for the latest edition.

If you've learned to kick back and enjoy a relaxing read, Faster will produce a warm self-satisfaction. If you're a hurry sickness sufferer, Faster is a useful diagnostic tool, and contains many tips on how to make your condition worse.

Few real insights, lots of amusing, sometimes alarming factoids; a smoothly-written, easily digested tour through the acceleration of your, or someone else's, life.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars A bit of a disaster for me..., 23 Mar 2000
I started "faster" with great anticipation, but soon got bogged down. The entire book seemed to be nothing more than a long string of facts, with little observation and no remedy or antidote for those caught up in the hectic pace of modern life. I had hoped to find some kind of cure or antidote to the woes of living in a fast and accelerating society, but instead just found a description of it, with plenty of facts confirming what I already knew. Whilst the book was occasionally interesting, I found myself wanting it to end. I'm afraid "faster" was a bit of a disaster for me, but that's not to say others wouldn't enjoy its examination into the ingredients of our frenetic lives. I have not read Gleick before, and am now a little anxious about "Chaos" that sits on my book shelf waiting to be read. I am upbeat though as reviews suggest it is better than "faster".
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars entertaining collection of observations
Jam-packed with information and covering subjects that range from Richard Feynman's observations of theoretical physics to the rise of MTV, this book reads, well, fastly. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Paul J. Fitzgerald

5.0 out of 5 stars Move over John A. McPhee, coming through
The master of important trivia, John A. McPhee “Oranges”, is about to be surpassed by James Gleick, “The Acceleration Guy. Read more
Published on 23 Oct 2002 by bernie

2.0 out of 5 stars A Breathlessly Superficial Collection of Factoids
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... Read more
Published on 23 Aug 2002 by A. Ross

5.0 out of 5 stars Live fast!
An amazing piece of work into the 'hurried' lifestyle of many people from developed nations. A real eye opener. Read more
Published on 2 Jan 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't give the answer, but it does ask the right questions
This was an excellent read. The profusion of examples built up a fascinating alternative view of how we live our lives. Read more
Published on 13 Feb 2001

4.0 out of 5 stars As time shortens who is really gaining?
A superb insight into the chase for the millisecond and beyond. No wonder the world seems stressed at times. The cure is to set your own time. Read more
Published on 28 Jul 2000

5.0 out of 5 stars Somehow I found the time to read this excellent book!
We all know the feeling, time is passing us by and we can't seem to get everything done. 'Is it Christmas again already' etc. Read more
Published on 28 Feb 2000 by simon@nomis.demon.co.uk

4.0 out of 5 stars A book that is frightenly easy to relate to your own life
Not the easiest book that I have ever read and not exactly what I would call a light read. Yet, if like me, you absorb statistical comparisons and obscure observations, you will... Read more
Published on 21 Nov 1999 by jason@magjas.fsnet.co.uk

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject











i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.