piabo's Reviews (301)

A lot of the science in the beginning is probably worth a re-read. I found it hard to follow the author's thoughts, and I think he got way too excited about some claims. And I heard that some of the stuff he is suggesting (like fasting) is not actually as great as suggested. I was comparing this book with Outlive by Peter Attia, which I found more approachable and actionable. Lifespan talks more about ideas for medicine and makes exercise, sleep, and mental health sound like secondary things. Which is not the case as of now.
But!
They might be less important one day! One day, we might actually be able to just swallow a pill or something similar against aging. Which, I guess, is the message this book wanted to get across with all that dubious science. Even if not all of those approaches succeed, some will. And they will likely increase our lifespan by a lot, if not by an infinite amount.
And that is why this book is actually interesting. All the discussions in the end that were about potential causes on the societal level and what that might mean for humanity. It made me think. And made me sign up to a longevity conference in SF lol. Let's learn more!

A world in the future in which climate change caused mass migration and made areas of the world inhabitable, the rich got together to create safe, isolated cities for the few lucky ones to have a "normal" life, unaffected by the weather of the outside world. 
I guess the story is not too far-fetched...
This one in particular puts a feminist and queer spin on it. It made me reflect on some mental models and ideas I hold in my head. Made me think a lot about my feminism.

I see why other people are complaining that the characters do not have a lot of depth and that the interactions sometimes seem forced. It is true to some extent but did not bother me too much. Yes, it was kinda a romance / queer love book that was not an incredible original in its dialogues and relationship building, but my shallow self could live with it. I found the world and the ideas it proposed much more interesting, anyway.

The beginning was a bit slow. Somehow lacking an overall theme outside of introducing people and family dynamics. I still enjoyed it, but it felt like the actual book did not begin until about 60% in. 
Once it started to become more involved in politics and historical happenings, I really enjoyed the book, and glad I stuck with the beginning too. It all came together nicely!
Highly recommend for insights into Chilean history and some extraordinary writing!

Can't wait to discuss this with my little book club soon :)

Someone said this book is about love and how complicated and diverse it can be. I found it to be a nice little story, that made me think a bit. C.S. Lewis is a famous author. 

+++ 2025 Review +++
I picked this up during a time I did not sleep well, and it inspired me to focus on my sleep hygiene more. Then put this down for a while because sleep was okay (I was back home lol), and then picked it back up again when I was sleeping badly again (the US is stealing my sleep, I swear haha). I am glad I re-read this book because I now have a better background in Neuroscience and could understand some claims and explanations much better. I think I was also able to identify some places that might be over optimistic, but I still really like this book as the basis for anyone who sleeps on a daily basis (and especially for everyone who does not!). I found myself discussing this book with a few people and always got so many questions about why we sleep, how much one should sleep, and how to sleep better. It is a topic we are all affected by, yet we don't really know a lot about it. How come we aren't even taught anything about it in school, although sleep is literally one of the biggest contributors (if not the biggest!) to your overall physical and mental health! Go sleep more, my friends :)

+++ 2022 Review +++
Comments on this book say that some study results are reported with over confidence. So take extraordinary findings with a grain of salt.
But still the general message of this book is incredibly powerful and I am so glad I read a book on sleep. Of course, we all know that sleep is important. But this book explains why and what influences sleep even without us knowing. I think it is a very important read.
Please sleep more, people!

The premise of the book is quite cool, but the execution was somehow lacking. Without too many spoilers: there are people writing letters to people they love/miss, but those letters never get received, rather found by another person who is then inspired to write a letter themselves. The theme is the experience of refugees from Lebanon living abroad and their struggles in life. In theory, very interesting! Just that some chapters are boring, and it gets confusing.
I am never a person who likes books about many different people at once, and I dislike it even more when connections feel forced and there is no greater overall theme. I guess this book had an overall theme, which was misery and violent experiences. Just not a pleasant read.
It is 3 stars for now, but I might change it to a 2 if I find other books that executed a similar idea much better.

This book helped me put my thinking more into historical context. Why the world is how it is today seems to make more sense to me now. I was especially happy when the author mentioned complexity :)

While reading the book, following the narrative was easy, but now trying to recount it is not as easy. I wonder if this is because neoliberalism is so deeply stuck in my being that it is hard to imagine a world outside of it.

I still wonder about the "why" of the other side. Why would people with a lot of money be so mean? Is it just because money makes people bad (I can't believe it)? Or is there something more complex at play (must be, but what is it?)? How can we stop the rich from exploiting the planet and the people? I believe that most people have good intentions, but that the system makes them act a certain way. What are those levers we must push to change it?
I also wish there were more answers on how the thinking of the people who vote for the right works. There are currently so many, and I am still looking for answers on their motives other than "the rich people put a lot of money into changing their opinion into supporting them". How exactly does it work? Someone tell me. There are still so many black boxes I feel like I need to understand better before we can actually change this system. Or am I just one of those people he describes at the end, who wants to change the world incrementally rather than in big waves at a time? Do we have all the answers we need, and does change really lie in doing rather than thinking about it? Possibly. Maybe both at the same time?

Read this (almost) every day during Ramadan, so glad I made it through.
The rating is for the translation. There have been a few confusions where I needed to go to other translations and it took me a while to get into "the", "though" etc. speech, but once I got used to it it was easy. Next is a German version.

I don't know. It was on my reading list for a while because everyone always talks about it, but I did not actually find it that insightful. Some of these laws make sense, but some are absolutely mad. They might work in isolated instances, but not in the way the author implies them. Some are contradictory (e.g. make a lot of friends and don't make friends at all), and some might work but are just sad (always have someone to blame for your mistakes). I think this is more of a history book trying to explain what leaders of the past did, but it does not feel scientific. 
For a more contemporary read I recommend: Influence by Robert Cialdini.

I read the abridged version and I think it was totally fine, don't feel like I missed much and would have also not been able to finish the longer version I think.

Another Hunger Games book!!! Yeyy! And it made me so excited about reading again, I really hope I'll get out of my reading hibernation / thesis writing phase soon, but this one motivated me so much!

The storytelling and book itself are great! So amazing to get more background on a few well-known characters and to get an understanding of

how, this early on, there were already efforts for a revolution

. I am not giving it 5 stars because I found it a little dull at times and the story line just too similar to the other books. It might have been necessary to show

how similar Haymitch and Katniss are

but I wish it was done a little differently. I don't know. Going to discuss this in my little book club soon and can't wait to hear the other people's opinions.

Also, I really wonder why there is so much poetry/songs. Does it do anything to the other readers? Do I have to read between the lines and get a deeper understanding of the whole book if I do? I was skipping them sometimes because I just did not understand what exactly they were adding, but I wonder if I might be missing out.