The most disappointing read of 2014 thus far. I'd be surprised if I read a worse book this year. ( )

Interesting. However, he doesn't manage to back up his science re: addiction-as-not-a-disease very well, and his arguments about addiction as a growing problem would benefit from some actual statistics. ( )

"My name is Ken and I am addicted to books....." I almost think that Mr Thompson would approve of my 'coming out'. He certainly takes the idea of addiction to the extreme.

There are large parts of this book which I found fascinating and well worth reading but the author does have a tendency to take things beyond their limits and announces truisms, without any sign of evidence to back them up. Internet pornography is a growing problem - this is undoubtedly true because the internet is still expanding but, Mr Thompson waves aside the fact that it is replacing top shelf magazines. He feels that internet smut is dragging us all into its clutches and he asserts, without any evidence that, once one has been infected with this terrible addiction, one is drawn, inevitably, into child pornography (unless one is a Catholic priest, in which case, it is merely a sign of one's loneliness and does no harm!)

Early in the text, Damien Thompson launches a rebuke to an American bakery that produces cup cakes. These are attractive to look at, give a pleasant sweet sensation and are well advertised: clearly, if the company had a single moral scruple, they would produce ugly, bitter tasting confections with an advertising slogan along the lines of, "Don't eat this rubbish". Apple are equally guilty of the crime of discovering what pleases their prospective customer and making it. Shouldn't be allowed.

Mr Thompson is a journalist, with one of Britain's many right wing newspapers, and I suspect that a lot of this book may have originally seen the light of day in articles for crusty old generals, who would like to return to the good old days when all this depravity did not exist (or was not spoken of).

There is an interesting book about the changing methods used by twenty-first century western man to obtain pleasure, within these pages: but be warned, the reader does need an "In my day....." filter to reach it; but the effort is worthwhile. ( )