How Infrastructure Works

Well, this is a weird one. There is almost nothing in here that I don't agree with, and the way Chachra articulates some of these very important things is often simple and beautiful. She even opens with a quote from one of my all-time favorite books, Ursula Franklin's ‘The Real World Of Technology.' So, what's not to like? Well, the problem is that, while the contents are great, it's just not very good as a book. While the topic is endlessly interesting and complex, the book itself is very repetitive, to the point where I felt like I was reading the same sentences over and over again. And while multiple volumes could be filled with gripping details or thoughts about infrastructure and its role in our lives, Chachra instead decided to fill this particular book with the modern non-fiction blight that is scenic intros—semi-relevant stories from the author's life that she comes back to again and again.

The sad state of popular non-fiction writing makes it impossible for me to say if this is due to too much or too little editorial oversight. But these 320 pages could've easily been cut down to 100—if that. The strange thing is that, other than the thousands of self-help blog posts turned into bloated productivity books, this could've easily been a 2000-page tome without any fluff and still be interesting.