In-Depth – DaneCobain.com

Neil Usher – The Elemental Workplace | Review

Title: The Elemental Workplace

Author: Neil Usher

Type: Non-Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 218

Rating: 3.5/5

Neil Usher – The Elemental Workplace

I picked up this book because I was being paid by a client to write in-depth book reviews and I needed to read the book to be able to do that. Still, it’s the kind of book that I like reading from time to time, and I thought that Usher had a lot to say on the subject of how we arrange our workplaces. I’m a big fan of efficiency, and so it pleased me to see Usher addressing that.

At the same time, though, I don’t really need to worry too much about my workplace because I work from home. True, there are a few concepts that I’m going to take from this and apply to my house, and there’s still more that I’d do if I had space to have an actual office in the place.

All in all, I think this is a pretty good book if you want to improve your workplace, and while it isn’t exactly revolutionary, it is interesting. I also liked the way that Usher sprinkled in stories and statistics here and there to help to make the book more interesting. You can tell that he’s also a performance poet.

Neil Usher

Click here to buy The Elemental Workplace.

George R. R. Martin – Dying of the Light | Review

Title: Dying of the Light

Author: George R. R. Martin

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 274

Rating: 3*/5

George R. R. Martin – Dying of the Light

I’ve had this book lying around for a while now, but I didn’t get round to picking it up until I teamed up with a friend on YouTube called Todd the Librarian to buddy read it. Unfortunately, I think Todd enjoyed it more than I did.

I’m not saying that I thought this was a bad book, though. In fact, while I’ve given it three stars, that’s only because I’ve downgraded it from a 3.5. It’s a passable sci-fi novel and the world that Martin creates is as in-depth as you’ve probably come to expect from him, but I just feel as though he’s better suited to either fantasy or horror.

Part of the reason why I struggled with this one is that it’s one of those books that comes with an inbuilt glossary. As a reader, you’re expected to put it down every couple of paragraphs and flick to the back so you can look something up and understand what’s actually happening, but I didn’t bother to do that and so it often got difficult to follow. The central plot was doable, but a lot of the politics and the world-building was lost on me.

The cool thing, though, is that I bought a used copy of this book online and when it arrived and I opened it up and started reading it, I found out that it was signed. I had no idea and I didn’t pay any extra for the privilege, so that was pretty cool. Yeah.