Reviews for Internet Dreams

The average rating for Internet Dreams based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-08-10 00:00:00 Marilyn Carpenter I am not a fly fisherman or any kind of fisherman; nonetheless I was excited to come across this book, Quinnett being both a fisherman and a psychologist, this book his effort to combine these two passions. I was hoping for depths of insight similar to those I find when I read Thomas Lynch—mortician, poet, essayist—who is insightful, observant, reflective and witty, all rolled into one good writer. But Quinnett is not Thomas Lynch. Once I became familiar with his style, I tired of it, primarily because I gave up hope of finding any forcefully compelling content, some new wisdom or old wisdom put in a provoking way, causing me to stop and reconsider familiar truth. Instead, Quinnett employs the same couple of jokes repeatedly, at first acknowledged with a polite chuckle but increasingly unoriginal and tired. Maybe if I were a fisherman I would feel differently. But the book, touted as being “lighthearted,” is too light for my taste; Quinnett’s voice hides any real emotion and seems to fear the realm of somber consideration that often accompanies profound insights. Pavlov’s Trout isn’t bad, but I felt I’d had enough about halfway through. I pressed on because I like to finish books, I retained a slender hope of a more compelling essay to come, and because it’s relatively short anyway. Thankfully, the last essay, “The Existential Angler,” is one of the better ones. I also appreciated the title essay, which unfortunately is the shortest one in the collection.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-09-09 00:00:00 George Taylor Honestly, I wanted to like this book more. The first third of the book seemed too forced, as he kept up an artificial pace of jokes and fishing puns. Then he really started to get into the meat of the subject and it became interesting. I was going along just fine, and then he flubbed the conclusion so horribly that I can only imagine that it was a term paper due in a few hours, and the all nighter was drawing to a close. It seems the sort of book that could have stood to have been through another draft. That being said, if you find yourself fishing as a way to center and get time for yourself and don't mind other people peeking in your head every so often, it is a quick read.