Overall, it is genuinely well written window into the lives of monks and their person fights against distraction. There's a familiar thread in this view, given the way the west has moralized attention and being distracted is seen as a moral flaw. However, what drew me back from rating this higher is that the book felt somewhat superficial. It didn't feel like it built to much, other than the idea of "we have always been constantly distracted, so let's look at a society we thought was focused." That being said, there's a major disclaimer here that I'm a relative newbie with reading these sorts of books.