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Book Review: Atomic Habits (James Clear)

B. Kline — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 00:21:06 +0000

Book Review: Atomic Habits by James Clear

I finally got around to Atomic Habits, but instead of reading it, I went with the audiobook version — which, for a book about systems, structure, and personal rhythm, actually worked pretty well. James Clear has a smooth, steady delivery that makes the material easy to digest during commutes, walks, or while doing absolutely anything else you’re trying to turn into a “habit.”

Overall, I found Atomic Habits to be a genuinely positive, practical, and well-packaged guide to incremental improvement. Clear excels at breaking down why small changes matter, and the principles — identity-based habits, habit stacking, and reducing friction — are solid, intuitive, and broadly applicable. There’s a reason this book sits on so many bestseller lists and gets recommended endlessly: the content is accessible, actionable, and encouraging without being preachy.

Atomic Habits by James Clear

Libby

Libby is a wonderful resource. If you have a library card and a smart phone, you can get access to hundreds, if not thousands, of free audiobooks through the app. Even better, is some very large libraries – such as the Philadelphia Library – offer free library cards no matter where in the world you live and therefore you then have access to their full audiobook library via Libby. I cannot recommend this enough for long car rides, chores at home, etc. Its how I’ve gotten up to nearly 200 books read for the year.

Book Review

This is the book blurb via GoodReads:

The instant New York Times bestseller. Over 1 million copies sold!

Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results

No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving–every day. James Clear, one of the world’s leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.

If you’re having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn’t you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don’t want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you’ll get a proven system that can take you to new heights.

Clear is known for his ability to distill complex topics into simple behaviors that can be easily applied to daily life and work. Here, he draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible. Along the way, readers will be inspired and entertained with true stories from Olympic gold medalists, award-winning artists, business leaders, life-saving physicians, and star comedians who have used the science of small habits to master their craft and vault to the top of their field.

Learn how to:
– make time for new habits (even when life gets crazy);
– overcome a lack of motivation and willpower;
– design your environment to make success easier;
– get back on track when you fall off course;
…and much more.

Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits–whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.

–GoodReads Back of the Book Blurb

That said, I did come away with a bit of skepticism. Not in the sense that the book is wrong, but more that it sometimes oversimplifies. Many of the examples feel polished to the point of being almost too neat, too convenient. Real-life change is often messier than the frameworks suggest, and the book occasionally feels like it’s smoothing the edges a little too much. There’s also an element of repetition — the core ideas are strong, but they’re stretched over more chapters than they truly need.

One of the things I did appreciate, though, was how flexible the methods are. Clear doesn’t lock you into a rigid system or a one-size-fits-all routine. Instead, he lays out principles you can adapt to your own life. For someone juggling work, personal projects, parenting, or whatever else life throws at you, having a modular approach is refreshing. It’s less “follow these exact steps” and more “here’s how habits work; now apply the pieces that make sense.”

The storytelling aspect is also one of the book’s strengths. Even when I found some examples a little too smooth, they’re undeniably memorable. Clear has a knack for weaving in psychology, personal anecdotes, sports stories, and business cases in a way that keeps the material from feeling dry. Listening to the audiobook gave these stories a bit more punch, and it helped keep my attention even during moments where the core message repeated itself.

Where the book fell short for me — and why I hover around a 3.5/5 — is in its depth. It gives you a fantastic overview of habit formation and behavior change, but if you’ve read other titles in this space (Duhigg, Fogg, Newport, etc.), a lot of the ideas will feel familiar. Atomic Habits is an excellent entry point, maybe even the best one, but it’s not necessarily the definitive or final word on the topic. It’s more of a gateway book — a spark that gets you thinking, rather than a deep dive that transforms everything on its own.

Still, for what it aims to be — a motivational blueprint for thinking about how habits shape your life — it absolutely succeeds. I’d recommend it to anyone who’s looking for a gentle push toward better routines or who wants a mental model for incremental change. Listening to it rather than reading gave it a more conversational, almost coaching style that I found effective.

In the end, I’d land at 3.5 out of 5. Useful, inspiring at times, worth the listen — even if I don’t think it’s the all-encompassing life-changer some people make it out to be. It’s a good tool, not a magic wand.

The GoodReads overall rating is currently sitting at a 4.32 (as of 11.9.25).

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Book Review: A Significant Life (Todd May)

B. Kline — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 01:08:59 +0000

Book Review: A Significant Life – Human Meaning in a Silent Universe (Todd May)

First off, Todd May has quickly become one of my favorite philosophers of the present. I first got acquainted with Todd May via the show “The Good Place”. His first work I read was Death, which helped me a lot with my own understandings, feelings, and thoughts about death. Especially around the time of Bart‘s death, and I remember going for a hike at Governor Dick and reading it. This year through AbeBooks I’ve gone and gotten all of his (affordable anyway, there’s a few ones that are 45$ plus shipping and handling, for used copies) works, and been reading them. Alongside my full read through of William Shakespeare and Kurt Vonnegut this year, I’ve also been doing a (nearly) full read through of Todd May. I am planning on posting reviews of the other works as well.

I feel like this review I leaned a bit more cynic and harsh though, but I think the review stands as it does.

A Significant Life by Todd May

A Significant Life

The following is the back of the book blurb on GoodReads:

What makes for a good life, or a beautiful one, or, perhaps most important, a meaningful one? Throughout history most of us have looked to our faith, our relationships, or our deeds for the answer. But in A Significant Life , philosopher Todd May offers an exhilarating new way of thinking about these questions, one deeply attuned to life as it actually a work in progress, a journey—and often a narrative. Offering moving accounts of his own life and memories alongside rich engagements with philosophers from Aristotle to Heidegger, he shows us where to find the significance of our in the way we live them.

May starts by looking at the fundamental fact that life unfolds over time, and as it does so, it begins to develop certain qualities, certain themes. Our lives can be marked by intensity, curiosity, perseverance, or many other qualities that become guiding narrative values. These values lend meanings to our lives that are distinct from—but also interact with—the universal values we are taught to cultivate, such as goodness or happiness. Offering a fascinating examination of a broad range of figures—from music icon Jimi Hendrix to civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer, from cyclist Lance Armstrong to The Portrait of a Lady ’s Ralph Touchett to Claus von Stauffenberg, a German officer who tried to assassinate Hitler—May shows that narrative values offer a rich variety of criteria by which to assess a life, specific to each of us and yet widely available. They offer us a way of reading ourselves, who we are, and who we might like to be.

Clearly and eloquently written, A Significant Life is a recognition and a comfort, a celebration of the deeply human narrative impulse by which we make—even if we don’t realize it—meaning for ourselves. It offers a refreshing way to think of an age-old question, of quite simply, what makes a life worth living.

A Significant Life by Todd May – GoodReads

Book Review: A Significant Life by Todd May

Todd May sets out to offer an answer—rather than the answer—to the question of life’s meaning, a topic he notes is surprisingly underdeveloped in philosophy. Unfortunately, I found the book largely unsatisfying, and often emblematic of what I think of as “classic philosopher pitfalls.”

For one, May devotes a great deal of time summarizing what long-dead philosophers believed about meaning. But if their ideas were wrong—and May clearly thinks they were—why spend so much of the book rehearsing them? When we teach calculus, we don’t trace every mistaken detour taken before Newton and Leibniz; we teach the useful parts. May also shows little interest in what contemporary science—biology, psychology, evolutionary theory—might contribute to the discussion. That blind spot becomes increasingly glaring.

More puzzling still, May defers the most important chapter—the actual core of his argument—until the very end. The result is a reading experience filled with “But what about…?” questions the book refuses to address until it’s nearly over.

He begins by quickly clearing some expected ground: neither the universe nor God can provide meaning. Fair enough, and it’s well-trodden territory, so I appreciated his brevity. But then nearly a fifth of the book is spent recounting what Aristotle (wrong), Bentham (wrong), and Mill (wrong) thought about meaning. Only one-third of the way in does the book finally begin in earnest, when May turns to Susan Wolf’s 2010 work Meaning in Life and Why It Matters. Everything before this feels like padding.

Wolf proposes a now-influential approach to meaningfulness—note: “meaningfulness,” not “the meaning of life”—summed up in her well-known formula:

Meaning arises when subjective attraction meets objective attractiveness.

It’s an intriguing idea, but I never felt May convincingly defended it. I’ll need to read Wolf directly. In May’s gloss, something is meaningful only when you value it (subjective attraction) and others also see its worth (objective attractiveness). He identifies this social dimension with what he calls “narrative values.”

But is this really “objective attractiveness”? It sounds far more like “whatever our society currently approves of.” And societies are often mistaken. What sense does it make to say, “Her life wasn’t meaningful to her contemporaries, but people centuries later think it was”? Meaning becomes historically and geographically contingent in a way that strains the framework.

May insists that meaningfulness and moral goodness are distinct. One can lead a meaningful life that isn’t morally good—and vice versa. Yet his handling of this distinction is unconvincing. At times, the framework produces absurd results:

A devoted Nazi officer could, by this account, have led a meaningful life—steadfastly committing himself to values his society (however horrifically) deemed admirable.

What does “meaningful life” even mean in that context?

Even May seems aware that his theory struggles to deliver the existential weight he wants it to have. He writes loftily that meaningfulness can

“…give heft to our projects… redeem the arc of our lives…”

and that it might

“…address the haunting fear that there is nothing more to our days than being born, dying, and the land increasing.”

He claims it could spare us from looking back on our lives with “desolation.” Yet why should embodying a narrative value like steadfastness produce any of these effects? Why would it add to the world, or redeem anything? The connection is asserted, not demonstrated.

Eventually May even concedes that meaningfulness isn’t necessary:

People whose lives are not meaningful… have not failed in any duty to themselves or others.

And further:

If someone says, “Not interested,” I would have no complaint… I have no argument for why he should feel obliged to express some narrative value.

If meaningfulness is unnecessary and carries no normative force, then what, exactly, is the point of defining it?

Despite all this, there is a small, compelling thread in May’s reflections. He observes:

We find our meaning not beneath or beyond our lives, but within them.

That seems right. Perhaps the problem is that May tries too hard to make “meaning” conduct more philosophical weight than it can bear. The concept raises deeper questions he never touches: What would it mean for a dog or chimp to lead a meaningful life? When in human evolution would “meaningfulness” have begun to apply? If it emerged gradually, doesn’t that suggest a biologically rooted craving rather than a metaphysical condition? And would a non-tribal species ever agree that “objective attractiveness” — i.e., the approval of the group — is essential to meaning?

These questions linger long after May’s framework has exhausted itself, and they are more thought-provoking than anything his own thesis ultimately puts forward.

My rating on GoodReads is *** out of 5. And on LibraryThing it is a 3.5 out of 5.

The overall average rating on GoodReads is a 3.70 as of 10.27.25.

Todd May

As I said earlier, stay tuned for the other books and works of his to be reviewed. I will interlink them all here.

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Book Review: Something Wicked This Way Comes (Ray Bradbury)

B. Kline — Fri, 02 May 2025 06:37:41 +0000

Book Review: Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

Few books capture the strange magic of October like Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes. First published in 1962, this dark fantasy novel still stands as one of the best explorations of childhood fears, aging, temptation, and the sinister carnival lurking just beyond the safe borders of small-town life. It’s a story where the smell of cotton candy and popcorn can just as easily make your skin crawl as it can make your mouth water.

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

Back of Book Cover Blurb

From GoodReads:

One of Ray Bradbury’s best-known and most popular novels, Something Wicked This Way Comes, now featuring a new introduction and material about its longstanding influence on culture and genre.

For those who still dream and remember, for those yet to experience the hypnotic power of its dark poetry, step inside. The show is about to begin. Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. The carnival rolls in sometime after midnight, ushering in Halloween a week early. A calliope’s shrill siren song beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. Two boys will discover the secret of its smoke, mazes, and mirrors; two friends who will soon know all too well the heavy cost of wishes…and the stuff of nightmares.

Few novels have endured in the heart and memory as has Ray Bradbury’s unparalleled literary masterpiece Something Wicked This Way Comes. Scary and suspenseful, it is a timeless classic in the American canon.

–Something Wicked This Way Comes (by Ray Bradbury) (on GoodReads)

The Setup: October Comes Early

Bradbury drops us right into Green Town, Illinois—a stand-in for his own hometown of Waukegan—where two best friends, Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway, are on the cusp of their 14th birthdays. They are mirror images of each other: Will is cautious, golden-haired, and reluctant to step into danger; Jim is impulsive, dark-haired, and constantly peering over the fence into adulthood.

Their bond is tested when Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show rolls into town. A traveling carnival that doesn’t arrive with trucks and trailers but with storms, smoke, and a foreboding sense of inevitability. On the surface, it’s the standard fair: Ferris wheels, sideshows, and barkers. But soon the boys realize this carnival doesn’t just offer fun—it offers your deepest desire, at a steep and terrible cost.

Themes: Fear, Temptation, and Time

At its heart, Something Wicked This Way Comes is about the passage of time and how we wrestle with it. Charles Halloway, Will’s father, is one of the most memorable characters in Bradbury’s canon. A janitor at the town library, he feels the ache of middle age—too old to be young, too young to be old—and struggles with what it means to be a good father. His late-night musings in the library are some of the most hauntingly beautiful passages Bradbury ever wrote.

Then there’s the carnival itself. Mr. Dark, the Illustrated Man, tempts townsfolk with what they think they want most: youth, beauty, power, or escape. The carousel at the heart of the carnival is both wondrous and horrifying—it can spin you forward into adulthood or backward into childhood, but it always exacts a price. The deeper message is classic Bradbury: beware of shortcuts. Life is meant to be lived through, not skipped over.

Bradbury’s Prose: Poetry in the Dark

Bradbury is never just about plot—he’s about language. His sentences crackle and dance with metaphor, like carnival lights flickering in the distance. Some readers find his prose dense, but for those willing to sink into it, Something Wicked is pure literary hypnosis. He describes October in ways that feel eternal, as if he captured the very essence of autumn and poured it into ink.

This isn’t a “sit down and skim” book—it’s a novel that demands you savor each page. The imagery of lightning rods, circus tents, and illustrated tattoos lingers long after you’ve finished.

Why It Still Matters

Sixty-plus years later, Something Wicked This Way Comes remains eerily timeless. Its themes of temptation, fear, and the fleeting nature of youth are universal. For teenagers, it’s a thrilling gothic adventure. For adults, it’s a mirror held up to the anxieties of aging, parenting, and responsibility.

It’s also a quintessential “October read.” Few novels so perfectly evoke the mood of chilly nights, whispering winds, and the sense that something—good or bad—might be waiting just around the corner.

Final Thoughts

Something Wicked This Way Comes is both a carnival ride and a meditation on life’s greatest mysteries. It’s spooky without being gruesome, profound without being pretentious, and endlessly re-readable.

If you want a book that makes you feel 14 again, standing on the edge of childhood with your best friend at your side and a storm rolling in over the horizon, this is it.

Rating:

I give it 4 stars on GoodReads, and 3.5 on LibraryThing.

Average GoodReads rating is 3.90 (as of 5.2.25).

Perfect for: fans of gothic fantasy, autumn reading lists, and anyone who loves their horror tinged with poetry and philosophy.

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Average Number of Books Read Per Year: Global and Demographic Breakdown

B. Kline — Thu, 01 May 2025 15:40:41 +0000

Average Number of Books Read Per Year: Global and Demographic Breakdown

This is a look at the books read per year, based on statistics from 2024, using metric sources from various different sites. Sources will be listed at the end of this article. Sources are primarily compiled up to March of 2025.

Ever wondered how your reading habits stack up against the rest of the world? Whether you’re a voracious bookworm or an occasional reader, the numbers might surprise you. Here’s a comprehensive look at the average number of books read per year—broken down by country, age, gender, and race—plus tips for tracking your own stats and making sense of your reading life.

A look at statistics in reading (and well, why not, have a beer with it too!).

By Country: Top 10 Countries

Based on surveys and aggregated data from 2024–2025, the average number of books read per person annually in the top 10 countries is as follows. Let’s start with a global snapshot. Here’s how the top 10 book-loving countries compare in average books read per person per year:

Rank	Country	Books Read Annually
1	United States	17
2	India	16
3	United Kingdom	15
4	France	14
5	Italy	13
6	Canada	12
7	Russia	11
8	Australia	10
9	Spain	9
10	Netherlands	8

By Race/Ethnicity (U.S. Data)

White Americans: Spend the most time reading, with higher daily averages than other groups.
Asian Americans: Average about 17.4 minutes of reading per day.
Hispanic Americans: Average only 6 minutes of reading per day.
Black Americans: Data shows lower reading proficiency scores compared to White Americans, with disparities persisting post-pandemic.

While time spent reading does not directly equate to books finished, these differences in daily reading time and literacy performance suggest White and Asian Americans read more books on average per year than Black and Hispanic Americans.

By Age Bracket (U.S. Data)

18–29 years: 83% read at least one book per year, the highest among all age groups.
30–49 years: 73% read at least one book per year.
50–64 years: 70% read at least one book per year.
65+ years: 67% read at least one book per year.

Millennials (roughly corresponding to the 18–34 age group) are noted as the generation reading the most books, with high library usage and a preference for both print and digital formats.

By Gender (U.S. Data)

Women: Consistently read more books than men. In recent surveys, 77% of women reported reading at least one book in the previous year, compared to 68% of men.
Fiction Reading: The gap is even wider for fiction; in 2022, 46.9% of women read fiction compared to just 27.7% of men, a persistent 19-point difference over the last decade.

Overall: The gender gap in reading is widening, especially among younger generations, with women leading in both quantity and frequency of book reading.

Summary Table: U.S. Book Reading Percentages by Demographic

Demographic	% Reading at Least 1 Book/Year	Notes
Women	77%	Higher fiction and overall book reading
Men	68%	Lower, with a widening gender gap
18–29 years	83%	Highest among age groups
30–49 years	73%
50–64 years	70%
65+ years	67%
White Americans	Highest reading time
Asian Americans	17.4 min/day
Hispanic Americans	6 min/day	Lowest average

Key Insights

The United States leads the world in average books read per year, followed closely by India and the United Kingdom.

Women, younger adults, and White/Asian Americans are the most active book readers in the U.S.

The gender gap in reading persists and is growing, especially among younger generations.

Millennials are the most avid readers by age group.

Sources

A list of sources used to compile the above data and information:

Some Other Literature Based Articles

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Book Review: Not Forever, But For Now by Chuck Palahniuk

B. Kline — Fri, 08 Nov 2024 14:46:55 +0000

Book Review: Not Forever, But For Now by Chuck Palahniuk

Not Forever, But For Now by Chuck Palahniuk

I’ve been a fan of Chuck Palahniuk since…. well… probably over twenty years now; since I was in high school really. I remember reading Fight Club, Rant, Choke, and Invisible Monsters in high school or soon after high school / college. But over time, the wording “fan” has probably changed a bit when regarding my interest in Palahniuk. Firstly, I think most of his newer novels have been very low quality, secondly, even re-reading some of the older works I’ve found myself enjoying them less.

Chuck Palahniuk

Palahniuk at BookCon in June 2018 (photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

Chuck Palahniuk might be best known for Fight Club; his first published (but not first written) novel – published in 1996. Hes credited with over 20 novels, films, short story compilations, short fictions, essays, and non-fiction works.

The following quick summary of Chuck Palahniuk comes from Wikipedia:

Charles Michael “Chuck” Palahniuk (/ˈpɔːlənɪk/;^[1]^[2] born February 21, 1962) is an American novelist who describes his work as transgressional fiction.^[3]^[4] He has published 19 novels, three nonfiction books, two graphic novels, and two adult coloring books, as well as several short stories. His first published novel was Fight Club, which was adapted into a film of the same title.

Palahniuk was born in Pasco, Washington, the son of Carol Adele (née Tallent) and Fred Palahniuk.^[5]^[6] He has French and Ukrainian ancestry.^[7] His paternal grandfather migrated from Ukraine to Canada and then to New York in 1907.^[8]

Palahniuk grew up living in a mobile home in Burbank, Washington. His parents separated when he was 14 years old, and they subsequently divorced, often leaving him and his three siblings to live with their maternal grandparents at their cattle ranch in eastern Washington.^[9] Palahniuk acknowledged in a 2007 interview that he is a distant nephew of actor Jack Palance, and that his family had talked of distant relations with Palance.^[10]

Palahniuk attended the University of Oregon, graduating with a degree in journalism in 1986. He interned at the local public radio station, KLCC, as part of his coursework.^[11]

– Chuck Palahniuk (Wikipedia Article)

Quick Book Review

Chuck Palahniuk is a name long associated with provocative, boundary-pushing literature. Known for his signature shock value and dark commentary on the absurdities of society, Palahniuk has captivated readers with books like Fight Club, Invisible Monsters, and Survivor. But, with his latest novel, Not Forever, But For Now, fans are feeling conflicted. Does it live up to Palahniuk’s legacy, or is it simply another installment of chaos for chaos’s sake? Let’s dive in.

For many, it’s been a while since a Palahniuk book really hit the mark. Some fans still find moments of brilliance in his work, but others feel his recent novels lack the depth that once balanced out the shock factor. In Not Forever, But For Now, that shock factor is turned up to eleven, but the substance behind it feels tenuous at best. Palahniuk’s approach here raises the question: how much is too much?

The story centers on Otto and Cecil, two brothers raised in a twisted lineage of assassins. Their privileged, grotesquely eccentric lifestyle is filled with hedonism and depravity, from murder to an assortment of disturbing obsessions. The narrative moves in erratic fragments, blending scenes of violence and debauchery with sporadic jumps to famous celebrity deaths and chilling family traditions. The overall tone feels forced, as if Palahniuk is determined to outdo his past works, even at the expense of storytelling.

One recurring complaint from readers is the novel’s mind-numbing repetitiveness. The phrases “having a go” and “having it off” are repeated endlessly—appearing over 180 times in a 256-page book. By the end, it’s hard not to feel exhausted by the lack of linguistic variety and to wonder if Palahniuk is simply running out of ideas. Gone are the insightful, twisted trivia and clever asides that once peppered his novels. Here, we’re left with repetitive dialogue that dilutes the impact of the narrative and any chance of connection with the characters.

The characters themselves—typically a saving grace in Palahniuk’s worlds—are flat. Otto and Cecil are self-indulgent, shallow, and virtually unchanging throughout the story. Their psychopathy lacks the nuanced edge of Palahniuk’s earlier protagonists, and instead, the brothers come across as hollow caricatures. Their antics seem designed solely to elicit shock rather than offer any real commentary. It’s hard to sympathize or even find intrigue in characters so lacking in complexity. Palahniuk’s knack for dissecting and humanizing dark, twisted psyches seems absent, leaving us with a cast that feels more grotesque than compelling.

Adding to the frustration is the lack of a coherent plot. What storyline exists feels derivative, a watered-down version of Fight Club without the depth. The book reads like a series of darkly comic skits with Otto and Cecil at the center, but there’s no overarching conflict or development. This structure—episodic and staccato—prevents the reader from becoming fully immersed or invested, and by the time Palahniuk hints at the novel’s purported theme of addiction in the afterword, it feels like an afterthought, tacked on to lend some semblance of meaning.

For long-time fans, this book is a tough pill to swallow. Many remember Palahniuk’s glory days, when his “edgy” style came with wit and a message, no matter how darkly delivered. But Not Forever, But For Now feels like it’s all edge and no center. Those shocking elements that once served as vehicles for exploring society’s flaws now feel like shock for shock’s sake. Readers who have followed his work for years—some since the early 2000s—are feeling more disappointed than disturbed, lamenting the loss of the writer who once brought so much raw, meaningful provocation to the page.

Ultimately, Not Forever, But For Now may appeal to those who can stomach its graphic content and relentless absurdity. It’s not a book for the faint-hearted or anyone expecting to find a redeeming arc within its twisted storyline. If you’re a die-hard Palahniuk fan, you may want to approach this one with caution; if you’re new to his work, there are better starting points.

As one reviewer aptly put it, reading this book feels “like a fever dream of nonsense trying to be something.” Palahniuk is undoubtedly talented, but in Not Forever, But For Now, that talent seems buried beneath layers of gratuitous grotesquerie, leaving readers wondering if he’s lost touch with the insightful, acerbic commentary that once made him a literary icon.

For those who remain undeterred, this book is available at your local library—and perhaps that’s the best place for it. No need to add this one to the shelf. It’s unlikely you’ll want to revisit it.

Book Summary and Back of Cover Blurb

This is the back of cover blurb (according to GoodReads):

From the bestselling author of Fight Club comes a hilarious horror satire about a family of professional killers responsible for the most atrocious events in history and the young brothers that are destined to take over.Meet Otto and Cecil. Two brothers growing up privileged in the Welsh countryside. They enjoy watching nature shows, playing with their pet pony, impersonating their Grandfather…and killing the help. Murder is the family business after all. Downton Abbey, this is not. However, it’s not so easy to continue the family legacy with the constant stream of threats and distractions seemingly leaping from the hedgerow. First there is the matter of the veritable cavalcade of escaped convicts that keep showing up at their door. Not to mention the debaucherous new tutor who has a penchant for speaking in Greek and dismembering sex dolls. Then there’s Mummy’s burgeoning opioid addiction. And who knows where Daddy is. He just vanished one day after he and Mummy took a walk in the so called “Ghost Forest.” With Grandfather putting pressure on Otto to step up, it becomes clear that this will all end in only two a nuclear apocalypse or just another day among the creeping thistle and tree peonies. And in a novel written by Chuck Palahniuk, either are equally possible.

– Not Forever, But For Now (GoodReads)

Currently it has 717 reviews, and 4,059 ratings on GoodReads with an average global rating of 3.10 (as of 11.8.24). It was first published on September 5th, 2023.

Book Review: “Not Forever, But For Now” by Chuck Palahniuk – A Disheartening Foray into the Grotesque

(The following is my full book review. It is quite long and lengthy.)

It’s been a long time since I truly enjoyed a Chuck Palahniuk book—my last favorite being Pygmy in 2009. Perhaps it’s because he’s changed, or maybe I have. Palahniuk, who made his mark with sharp, transgressive fiction, seems to have lost his edge in a way that’s less about maturity and more about shock tactics growing stale. His latest book, Not Forever, But For Now, was a chore, one that feels more like a caricature of his earlier work than an actual evolution of it.

A Lackluster Attempt at Shock Value

If Palahniuk is trying to provoke, he’s doing it in the most uninspired way. Not Forever, But For Now features two depraved brothers, Otto and Cecil, who come from a family of hitmen and pass their time committing heinous acts with nihilistic indifference. Rather than being cleverly subversive or thought-provoking, the book relies heavily on crass depictions of taboo topics—incest, necrophilia, and casual violence—served up without much nuance or narrative purpose.

The book is awash in repetitive language. Every mention of “having a go” or “having it off”—phrases meant to stand in for sexual acts—is jarringly overused, coming across more like a gimmick than anything artistically meaningful. In fact, it happens so often that it begins to feel like padding in an already thin story. The sheer redundancy detracts from the impact of the story and draws attention away from any attempt at deeper commentary. There’s an unsettling sense that Palahniuk is merely trying to be offensive for offense’s sake, without bothering to ground it in anything substantial.

Characters that Fall Flat

Characters are central to any story, but the two brothers in Not Forever, But For Now come across as shallow and undeveloped. They seem more like grotesque caricatures than people, with no redeeming qualities or growth throughout the novel. This would be less of an issue if there were at least something intriguing about them or if the plot gave them a purpose beyond nihilistic thrill-seeking. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case here. Palahniuk has managed to make Otto and Cecil dull, despite their appalling behavior.

For longtime Palahniuk fans, this lack of compelling characters is especially disappointing. His early works, like Fight Club, succeeded not only because of their shock value but because the characters were multifaceted and served as vehicles for larger, often biting social commentary. In Not Forever, But For Now, that balance is lost. What remains are over-the-top personalities without any depth or context, making it difficult to care about anything they do.

A Plot that Never Quite Takes Off

One of the most frustrating aspects of this book is its lack of a cohesive plot. While Not Forever, But For Now flirts with themes of addiction and social alienation, it doesn’t explore them in any meaningful way. The brothers engage in disturbing acts, but these actions don’t lead anywhere. There’s no real conflict, no resolution—just a sequence of sordid scenes that feels less like a story and more like a loosely strung-together collection of vignettes.

The absence of a structured narrative is compounded by abrupt time shifts between past and present, which often make the plot hard to follow. Readers are thrown into seemingly random moments without much explanation, resulting in confusion rather than intrigue. Palahniuk’s choice to emphasize style over substance here does a disservice to his story, making the reading experience feel choppy and disjointed.

Failed Social Commentary

Palahniuk is known for his dark humor and his often scathing critique of society. However, in Not Forever, But For Now, the social commentary feels forced and hollow. The book attempts to satirize toxic masculinity and societal taboos, but the execution is lacking. Instead of examining or challenging these themes, the novel simply throws them at the reader without providing any real insight. The gratuitous violence and sexual references come across more as shock-jock material than as an effort to convey anything substantive.

There’s a moment near the end where Palahniuk hints that the book is really about addiction—a last-minute attempt to inject meaning. This revelation feels like an afterthought rather than an organic part of the story, and it does little to redeem the narrative. In his early works, Palahniuk was able to blend shocking content with insightful commentary on the darker sides of human nature. Here, though, he falls short, relying too heavily on lurid details without the layered critique that once made his work compelling.

A Disappointing Shift in Tone and Quality

As a longtime fan of Palahniuk’s work, I found this novel to be especially disappointing. At one time, he was so influential to me that I jokingly referred to him as “Uncle Chuck.” I’ve reread Invisible Monsters numerous times, finding new layers and nuances with each read. But Not Forever, But For Now lacks the charm and depth that made those earlier works so memorable.

Palahniuk’s writing here feels stale and formulaic, as if he’s struggling to find new ways to provoke. Rather than shocking readers with innovative ideas or unique perspectives, he’s resorting to a checklist of obscene acts, none of which carry much emotional or intellectual weight. The book’s tone is weary, almost desperate—like Palahniuk is trying to prove he can still be edgy, but without any of the conviction or purpose that marked his earlier work.

Final Thoughts

Not Forever, But For Now is, ultimately, a disappointing entry in Palahniuk’s bibliography. While it contains some of the hallmarks of his style—dark humor, transgressive themes, and a bleak worldview—it fails to bring these elements together in a satisfying way. The characters are unlikable and one-dimensional, the plot is fragmented, and the social commentary feels shallow.

For those who are new to Palahniuk’s work, I wouldn’t recommend starting here. His earlier books, like Fight Club or Invisible Monsters, showcase his ability to blend shock value with genuine insight into the human condition. Longtime fans might still be curious, but they should approach this one with tempered expectations. Not Forever, But For Now is, unfortunately, a reminder that even the most daring authors can fall into the trap of trying too hard to be provocative, ultimately sacrificing substance for style.

This one-star experience feels like a requiem for what Palahniuk’s writing once was—a visceral, uncompromising voice that’s since devolved into empty, tiresome provocation. For now, I’ll stick to revisiting his older work, holding on to the memory of the author he used to be.

My ratings:
GoodReads Rating: * out of *****
Global Average Rating: 3.10 (as of 11.8.24)
LibraryThing Rating: 1.5 out of 5

Other Book Reviews

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2020 NAGBW Awards

BKline — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 03:45:00 +0000

To coincide with the Great American Beer Festival, the North American Guild of Beer Writers held their their annual awards ceremony on October 17th. You can read about the Pennsylvania brewery winners at the 2020 GABF here.

The below is the list of the 2020 NAGBW Awards and links to their works (when / where applicable).

Best Beer Review:

Big Two Hearted — The Fascinating Story of Bell’s Iconic IPA by David Nilsen, Pellicle Magazine
Brut Strength: A New Lost Abbey Venture by Ian Cheesman, West Coaster San Diego
Where the Wild Things Are — The Joy of Harvey’s Sussex Best by Matthew Curtis, Pellicle Magazine

They also announced an honorable mention for: A Wake-Up Call — Mikkeller’s Beer Geek Breakfast by Jonny Garrett, Good Beer Hunting

Best Short Form Writing:

Dirt Roads and Dead Deer – Kros Strain Brewery’s Vienna Lager by Mark Spence, Good Beer Hunting
Meet The 99-Year-Old Who’s Still Volunteering at Union Craft Brewing by Michael Stein, Washington City Paper
Cranberries in your beer? For Thanksgiving, look for styles that balance the tannic and tart fruit by Zak Stambor, Chicago Tribune

Best Book:

Craft: An Argument by Pete Brown
A Brief History of Lager: 500 Years of the World’s Favourite Beer by Mark Dredge
Historical Brewing Techniques: The Lost Art of Farmhouse Brewing by Lars Marius Garshol

They also announced an honorable mention for: Denver Beer: A History of Mile High Brewing by Jonathan Shikes

Best Historical Writing:

Flying With Clipped Wings — West Kerry Brewery, County Kerry, Ireland by Breandán Kearney, Good Beer Hunting
Pandemic, Interrupted — A Besieged Beer Scene in 1918 Milwaukee by Brian Alberts, Good Beer Hunting
Craft Beer’s Unlikely Alchemist by Theresa McCulla, Gastronomica

Best Technical Writing:

The Intersection of Finance and Data by Douglas Veliky, Beer Crunchers
Foeder Gatherers — Tracing the Growing Popularity of Beer’s New Favorite Vessel by Lily Waite, Good Beer Hunting
A Fire Being Kindled — The Revolutionary Story of Kveik, Norway’s Extraordinary Farmhouse Yeast by Claire Bullen, Good Beer Hunting

They also announced an honorable mention for: Welcome to Fringe Division — The Innovative Malting Technology That’s Producing Better Beer by Matthew Curtis, Good Beer Hunting

Best Beer and Food Writing:

Craft Cousins: Beer & Chocolate by David Nilsen, Cacao Magazine
Malts and Meats: Crafting Beer-Based Barbecue by John Carruthers, Craft Beer & Brewing
Native Vinegar Co. is just starting, but it already has thousands of workers by Bob Batz Jr., Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

With an honorable mention for: Michelin-starred Band of Bohemia isn’t Chicago’s best brewery — but here’s why it’s among the most essential by Josh Noel, Chicago Tribune

Best Beer Travel Writing:

Amazing, Quirky Beers of Lithuania by Jeff Alworth, Beervana Blog
If you want craft beer in Munich, it’s pure Helles by Martyn Cornell, Zythophile Blog
Where the Streets are Paved with Bottle Caps — Exploring Berlin’s Nascent Craft Beer Scene by Lily Waite, Good Beer Hunting

An honorable mention for: A Lifetime Spent Weathering the Storm — Adnams Brewery in Suffolk, U.K. by Adrian Tierney-Jones, Good Beer Hunting

Best Beer Business Writing:

Colorado Loses HQ: Why Molson Coors Had to Leave – and What Denver is Learning in Its Wake by Ed Sealover, Denver Business Journal
Chicago craft breweries scramble amid coronavirus downturn, trying to react to a crisis they don’t quite understand by Josh Noel, Chicago Tribune
Coming in Hot With the Cold Snacks — How Montucky Became the Most Successful Beer Brand You’ve Never Heard Of by Kate Bernot, Good Beer Hunting

An honorable mention was also given to: Healthier Booze: It’s a Lifestyle (Trend) by Joe Stange, Craft Beer & Brewing

Best Beer Criticism, Essay, and / or Commentary:

Under the Influence by Beth Demmon, Caña Magazine
Mutated Anxieties — Living (and Parenting) While Black in the Face of Law Enforcement and COVID-19 by Jamaal Lemon, Good Beer Hunting
Craft, Community, and Children: The State of Parenting in the American Beer Industry by Beth Demmon, CraftBeer.com

Best Beer Blog:

Larsblog by Lars Marius Garshol
Zythophile by Martyn Cornell
Pints and Panels by Em Sauter

Best Beer Podcast, Radio, Broadcast, or Audio:

Good Beer Hunting Podcast by Good Beer Hunting Staff, Good Beer Hunting
Beerlandia Podcast by Jeremy Storton, 1859 Oregon’s Magazine
Beer Sessions Radio by Jimmy Carbone, Heritage Radio Network

An honorable mention was given to: Cabin Fever by Eoghan Walsh, Brussels Beer City

Best Local Beer Reporting:

Bringing Everyone in — How Temescal’s Queer First Fridays Became One of Beer’s Most Inclusive Events by Ashley Rodriguez, Good Beer Hunting
Gravity of the Situation — Has 450 North Addressed Its Quality Control Issues … and Does Anyone Care? by Kate Bernot, Good Beer Hunting
Beer industry burnout brings lauded Texas brewer to Chicago for a new chapter and a new project, Keeping Together by Josh Noel, Chicago Tribune

Honorable mention: The Pursuit of Freshness — Admiral Maltings in Alameda, California by Alyssa Pereira, Good Beer Hunting

Best National or International Beer Reporting:

Crisis at the Fire Front — Australia’s Brewing Industry Deals with Disaster as Bushfires Rage by Luke Robertson, Good Beer Hunting
Say It Out Loud — Who Do Breweries Talk About When They Talk About “Community”? by Kate Bernot, Good Beer Hunting
Embracing Tradition — To Create a Style for the Future, South African Brewers Look to the Past by Lucy Corne, Good Beer Hunting

You can read more about the awards given, the NAGBW in general, at The Reporter’s Notebook:

Reporter’s Notebook

To read more about the Pennsylvania GABF Winners, click here:

2020 Pennsylvania GABF Winners

For more beer industry news, you can view our articles on the following:

You can read about more brewery closures here:

And in better, happier news, check out our articles on brewery openings:

Be sure to check out our other articles on brewery openings:

Hopefully, someday soon, maybe I’ll have some writing nominated, or at least even read by the NAGBW. One can only hope, fingers crossed, toes crossed, etc.

Until then, make sure to follow us and share us please. Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Influence. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

As always, thanks for reading, stay safe!

Cheers!

-B. Kline