I honestly found very little of this book entertaining. I mean, I guess it's super nostalgic from my childhood but it was so incredibly boring that I really didn't care about anything. 🫤

A true picture of what life was like. So if you were born in the 90's or before, this book will be a sweet walk down memory lane. It brought back so many good memories from my own growing up years and reading this at the end of the year, when I am already in a more reflective frame of mind was a lovely way to realise how far I and we have come, and how in the new year some of the things from my life before the internet i'd like to bring back into my life. A quick and nostalgic read.

2.5 stars. This felt more like a lengthy essay than a book as it's more of a dry listing of how things used to be than what we can learn from the good old days (although his son's experience actually addressed his subtitle in the final pages, it was mostly missing from the rest of the book). I also would have liked more concrete information and stats backing up some of the information.

Being a person who speaks both languages I am mentally enjoyed this book an FYI I too was obsessed with Tetris. There are so many things in this book that I agree with for from the benefits of life before to the enjoyment of life after the Internet as a person who went blind as a young adult the Internet was definitely a WOW moment for me with more books that I could read at my fingertips, to being able to give my opinion on those books quite easily. Not to mention keeping in contact with others writing letters in a moment to time sending birthday wishes ET see all these are great positives about the Internet but while raising my own children I did cherish those moments when the iPads and phones were put away and we just had family time playing word games monopoly or whatever there’s something to be said about getting back to basics and that is what this book is about the good old days and the great new ones. This was such a great book as I said I loved it and read it all in one day. I grew up riding my bike for miles roughhousing with my friends in the yard playing hide and seek things in retrospect I cherish and sadly as my children were growing up with the exception of my older kid I felt the need to monitor their every movement and although gave them more freedom than all those I knew still had to know exactly where they were at all times. I loved the analogy about teleportation and just can’t say enough about the greatness of Life Before The Internet by Michael Gentle I want to think the author computers Inc. in NetGalley for my free arc copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Having grown up in the 80s and 90s, I felt that the author was romanticising the period before the growth of the internet. But it makes some valid points about how life has changed.

Life Before the Internet is a short book which looks back to the distant age of the 70s, 80s and 90s. As a member of Generation X, I grew up in this era and was around 30 before I owned a decent PC and around 40 before my first smartphone so I lived the formative years of my life in this simple time! I suspect this book will mainly appeal to those who remember the days of yore.

It brought back a lot of memories of the things we had to put up like photographic films and travellers' cheques. I'd never want to go back to those things. I find it baffling enough that anyone still wants to use Vinyl or play CDs. Even if it means putting up with spam, trolls and endless distractions.

But I do agree that kids are probably overprotected and find it harder to acquire social skills than older generations did. But I would never swap this world for the old one. I feel lucky like the author to have grown up in one world and swapped to the other while I was still young enough to adjust (although I can't type with two thumbs like younger people!).

At the moment Generation X and Baby Boomers largely still govern the world. The Internet generation, brought up with social media and with inferior social skills, is yet to come of age. That's when it will get really interesting.

The book is a bit short, there's plenty more that could have gone in (from a UK point of view - it is a US book). Not least we only had 3 or 4 TV channels and almost everyone watched the same thing every night and you could all talk about it the next day! The was very little live sport on TV and what there was got enormous audiences. It was probably the same at cinemas as well. The amount of possible leisure activities is now so vast that there's often nobody to exchange views with on what you have seen and read (unless you go online). Eating out, shopping, everything has changed on the high street!

Life Before the Internet offers a delightful and nostalgic trip back to the author's childhood, a time when technology was just beginning to emerge, and my childhood too! Gentle skilfully encapsulates the emotions and experiences of growing up in a simpler era. The book contains valuable lessons for younger generations who may not have experienced life before constant connectivity, and serves as a poignant reminder for those who have forgotten such as myself. It's a quick read that I enjoyed, it left me with a smile reminiscing about the times about my short time before the internet and some fabulous childhood memories.

Life Before the Internet by Michael Gentle will be published on November 24, 2023. O-Books provided an early galley for review.

Like the author, I grew up in the time before the Internet became an everpresent force in our lives. So, this look back at simpler times is very much a nostalgic trip back to the time before I was an adult.

Gentle does a fantastic job putting into words the feelings and the undertstanding of what it was like growing up in those times. There are lessons in these pages for those who are too young to know life being disconnected, lessons that can also serve as a reminder to those of us who are old enough to have forgetten them as well. He really does show how far we've come in our behaviors and routines, for good or for ill, in the last two and a half decades.

For a quick read, it leaves one with quite a bit to think about afterwards.

Ready for a touch of nostalgia? This is the book that is sure to pique interest in those who long for a simpler life, BI (Before Internet).

Nope.

Of this book, I could only appreciate some thought-provoking points, which are indeed interesting ("Why are a growing number of Millennials filling their homes with retro-style gadgets?", "Why didn't our grandparents complain about living conditions that today would seem truly challenging to us?"), and the author's tone, which is balanced (it's clear he misses the good old days, but he shows a certain understanding of the present: "yes, it was nicer when we always answered a ringing phone, but after all, nowadays it's always a call center trying to sell you something...").

But, for the rest: nope.

I approached this book with a strong positive bias because I was interested in the theme, but it didn't resonate with me at all. Moreover, I feel that at times the author describes a "good old days" that perhaps exists more in his childhood memory than in reality: in what time and place was it considered normal to show up at someone's house unannounced? Perhaps at his home, and I don't know in what sociocultural context he grew up; my mom, born in 1947 in a metropolis from a middle-class family, would have found it very strange if her schoolmates had knocked on her door without first announcing their visit politely the day before.

Or again: in the good old days, phone conversations were private because no one spoke on the phone in public? Well, yes: you were simply forced to carry on your conversation in your living room using a wall-mounted phone, so all your family members could eavesdrop and/or, worse, had to endure your loud voice while trying to follow a radio or TV program. But surely things were better when they were worse, right?

Unfortunately, this book seemed to me like little more than a nostalgic outburst from an adult who might projects onto the past his personal memories of a childhood idyll. Some of the things he says might be true, but in my opinion, this book is mainly the sweet memory of a bygone time - that he recalls with more sweetness than objectivity.

As a Gen-Xer, this was a nice blast from the past...however, it didn't really feel like a _book_ to me. I guess, though, for digital natives and those who aren't familiar with "the old days," it could be an introduction to why some of us are the way we are...