I’ll start by saying I like Robin Ince, he’s a great co-host on Infinite Monkey Cage, and his intelligence and humour are normally engaging. Unfortunately, his book on being interested, just wasn’t, well, interesting.
The book is about science and curiosity, but it’s incredibly rambling. Ideas aren’t pursued before he spins off. He just gets beneath the surface on a topic, then wham, he’s off quoting somebody and heading in a different direction. Robin mentions the “tangential nature of my jabbering” when on-stage, and I imagine it works well with a live audience. On paper , it feels unfleshed.
The clincher for me was the comment, “I would hope that those private companies that are now financing space missions have not build up their fortunes needed to become extraterrestrial by skimping on tax or employee rights and benefits”, that’s exactly what they’ve done – it’s well documented.
It feels like a lock-down project that was rushed to completion as the world started opening up. Some parts are worth reading, so 3 stars.