The Information by James Gleick
Published 2011 · 160,000 words · about 11 hours at an average pace · History, Media & Technology, Nonfiction, Science & Nature
How hard is The Information to read?
The Information scores 30 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it relatively accessible. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 45 out of 100
- Information theory, mathematics, and computer science terminology.
- Sentence structure: 40 out of 100
- Abstraction: 55 out of 100
- Information theory and its implications for understanding reality.
- Information density: 60 out of 100
- Dense with mathematical concepts, historical narrative, and philosophical implications.
- Narrative indirection: 20 out of 100
- Chronological with thematic connections. Biographical narratives drive the argument.
- Symbolic density: 20 out of 100
- Information itself is both subject and organizing concept.
- Ironic distance: 15 out of 100
- Earnest, intellectually engaged tone.
- Resolution withholding: 15 out of 100
- Builds to a clear thesis about information overload.
- Structural complexity: 35 out of 100
- Fifteen chapters spanning multiple disciplines and centuries.
How The Information is regarded
The Information holds a literary regard score of 49 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.