The Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter Paperback – October 24, 2017

This is one of those books I find myself recommending over and over to friends and acquaintances--heck, even to near-strangers. It's a fascinating thesis and provocative insight into what experiences human beings crave and are rewarded by. One of the sticky passages: the author's observation about how much more sensory learning a two year old gains from finger painting with actual finger paints--which of course end up dripping down her arm, in her hair, on the dog, and occasionally on the paper--than from drawing on an Ipad. That and the concept of "finishability" which explains why it's so much more satisfying to read an actual book (or, get this, an actual newspaper) than reading the same content online in a never-ending trip down the rabbit hole of the internet. Nothing like the satisfying feeling of reading a good book to its end notes. That certainly goes for this one.

Picking up this book is a little like finding out you aren't the only geek in your class. There is a tribe of analog-lovers who are choosing to invest in the latest trend: real life. We are not luddites....just really appreciate the magic of THINGS. And yes -- I see the irony of this digital review on my iPhone Kindle.

I am actually not done yet, but this book grips you with the irony of analog vs digital and the ways analog is making a major comeback! You will be enlightened and intrigued and fascinated with the stories of the resurgence of such things as Film, record albums and paper. People around the world are looking to touch, feel, experience something different than the digital age, and are willing to pay for it! The author is investigative, insightful and just plain delightful to read. Wonderful book!

Refreshing and timely, a strong encouragement to not fall headlong into the rush to technology that our (marketing) culture is pushing us all into. Was so good I gave out several copies to folks as Christmas presents. Highly recommended for those who enjoy real things and not just digital recreations of things...long live analog!

This is an absolutely fantastic book. The greatest compliment I can give this book is that I wish I had written it.David Sax so clearly, succinctly and eloquently lays out the case for the value of analog objects, experiences and ways of thinking. Instead of waxing nostalgic, pining for the dreamy, pre-digital days, Sax unfurls a thoughtful and impressive case for why analog experiences continue to be important to our culture, economy and our own lives.There's so much in this book that's worth chewing on, and I will continue to do so long after I've closed its covers. My highest recommendation.

Well... I finally had the time to finish "The revenge of Analog".What can I say? I've been a few years with the sensation that 'digital was not enough', that 'too many voices pushing for a new digital world', and that , in fact, people still loves to be with people and own real things, because real people and real things matter. After reading the book I know that I am not alone!This is a brave book, a new look to reality, not only 'outside the box' but really 'against the box'.Being a boardgame publisher myself, I've been living the rise of the industry from the front-line, and Sax is right in almost all his statements (well... apart from the fact that D&D players we use d20s and not d10s, lol).The book explains very well the mechanism why people can set up profitable businesses outside the 'media enhanced reality' of the digital economy, and also many of the basic behaviour of normal people in front of the things we like and love, like records, books, or real friendship.I foresee a boom of good business around real things, putting tecnology to work for humans, instead of using humans as the terminal end of some sort of entertainement AI in the hands of a handful of big companies."The revenge of analog" is a book that any humanist should read. It brings hope, based in facts and not in digital propaganda.

If you're looking for inspiration to start a retro-themed business, this is chock full of success stories. If you're looking for some sort of neo-Luddite manifesto, or thought-provoking analysis of digital vs analog, you won't find it here. Very business oriented, and doesn't really discuss reasoning outside of marketing.Interesting read, and pretty entertaining, but not what I was expecting.

A good start toward understanding the gentle rebellion against the digital. To much about the authors travels and people he met and things he purchased and not enough analysis of why we sometimes want very much a nondigital solution.There is a lot of research on decision making that should have been employed to explain return of analog. But a very good start on a big issue

A thoughtful reminder of why real world 'things' matter as we dive into the digital vortex, which may no doubt both limit and expand our experience as humans. As they say, what goes around comes around. So it is with the things discussed in the book. Vinyl passes away to be rediscovered by people who want to be closer to the real sound, and are less happy with CD sampling of the sound curve. Paper will always matter and so on. As young people rediscover the cognitive roots of creativity, they will find the digital world offers a type of experience, but not all the experience.Well written, and just plain interesting. Of course, you have to think the analogue (proper spelling by the way...) world still matters, as even clicking away at my computer typing this, I'm listening to radio (wasn't that supposed to be extinct by now), with my paper notebooks from Clairefontaine and Atoma (which predates Moleskine by 50 years) and vintage and new fountain pens on my desk next to my 1920s brass ink blotter from France (very deco style, too).What this book also suggests is that the futurists have got a few projections quite wrong, or missed out that people still live in a real world of things, and in the non-consumerist sense, things do matter to help individuals anchor themselves. "The Machine Stops", by E. M. Forster is a potent tonic worth re-reading in the context of this book.

For the first time in my life a few years ago, I had the experience of losing a piece of music. An opera, actually, that I had bought some years before on CD. The CD itself was in another country, and the ones and zeroes that it had turned into seemed to have vanished somewhere. No opera. Now of course in the days of LP records, you could lose discs (difficult but not impossible), they would warp and wear out, but at their best they were tactile, almost magical objects that required love and enthusiasm if they were to give of their best. Oh, and last year I found a Kindle book that I had no memory of buying, and several others that I had obviously abandoned half way through without realizing.Which is to say that digital is digital. Very good for some things (try taking my iPhone away) but less good for others. Cost-effective in some cases, but by no means always.The great virtue of David Sax's book is its even handed tone. The people he interviews generally love what they are doing with analogue, but they also have sound reasons for doing it. Analogue works better, is simpler, is more reliable, is more popular, is more profitable, or some mixture of the above. And the strangest thing, reserved for last, is that many in the technology industry revere analogue as well for certain purposes, no matter how much digital they use in their jobs.Now, let's hope I get my whiteboard and marker pens back when I teach next semester.....

A smart idea to explore the tension between digital and analog representations, celebrating the latter against the apparent tide. Perhaps there is two-star’s worth of novel and intriguing examples but, otherwise, the author’s approach to this project is culturally myopic and his generalisations are built upon a rather disappointing style of journalism – observations that could have been complemented and explored through the vast amount of (still accessible) social science research that surrounds these issues.Sax cruises around the USA (and largely the USA) taking notes (Moleskin no doubt) from conversations with key players. But, my goodness, his reporting style is irritating. Every captured remark is ponderously located in its context: “’Reality is still where the action is’ Peskovitz said between bites of Moroccan chicken stew and quinoa salad”. Sometimes with clumsy metaphor: “’But the analog world is all about friction’ he continued, running his hand over the rough wooden table”. Perhaps Sax’s lever on getting the ear of these people was their assumption that his style would get their products some fawning approval: “’Digital workplaces are designed to be frictionless’ Belsky sad effortlessly holding up his phone and using an Adobe app his team helped create to capture the colors of a bowl of fruit in a single tap”.In this catalogue of examples (paper, film, games, work etc), some chapters are persuasive. But others much less so (the rebirth of vinyl seems declared every couple of years). Other topics (school in particular) are flawed by that lack of critical engagement with the professional literature about digital mediation – its scope, form and impact. And the whole argument is culturally constrained (e.g., whatever may be the West Coast norm, in hours of travelling the Shanghai metro I have never seen anyone reading a physical book, a magazine or a newspaper).I purchased the book out of gut sympathy with the underlying theme – but struggled against the writing and, in the end, was disappointed by the level of understanding it delivered about my own sad analog predicament.

I half expected The Revenge of Analog to be written by a Luddite, hell-bent on highlighting how digital technology is the work of the devil, and analogue will rise from the ashes.I was wrong.Author David Sax is an accomplished Canadian business writer and journalist.*Klaxon*.More trepidation……many business writers hammer their point of view to death ad nauseam, oftentimes relentlessly over hundreds of pages.But not this one.Each chapter in this captivating book is a well evidenced and a fascinating insight into a specific industry or product that has been usurped by digital technology, but sprouted green shoots as a result of exploiting a unique aspect of its analogue heritage that can’t be replicated by digital technology.In many cases it’s the sensory, social or unique features of Books, Vinyl, the Workplace, Stationery, Board Games, Retail, Film -and even Summer- that people ( especially Millennials) derive from analogue experiences.The book boasts an embossed slip cover and a font that is easy on the eye to showcase the design investment publishers are putting back into books in the face of kindle etc.If you’re looking for a refreshing and intriguing business read this summer about products initially diminished by digital technology re-inventing and transforming themselves by focusing on what digital can’t deliver – read this.

Good book, but I HATE ANY reference to computers. I am even on Amazon here 'cause there are no shops here northern Norway and I am Luddit, no pc, no mobile phone or other gadgets. Using friend's PC to write this critic. So to me, the reembracing of analog(i was born '73) is going home. IT'S NOT because of nostalgia but 'cause it works and life is simple and all in ease. This book explains anyhow WHY we should love the analog and at that it does great job. ++4 stars!!

I am three-quarters through the book and I am getting the sense that this is one of the nicest books I have read for a long time, and I do read quite a lot of books. I thought vinyl records would be the major part of the book but not so, there are many different chapters, including, books, watch production, shops and more. The author has an easy writing style. I have felt inspired to dig a bit deeper around the subject matter and to embrace more fully my choice of paper diaries each year for the last 20 plus years. I look forward to continuing to read the book and to take a look at what other work the author has undertaken.

Brilliantly interesting. This reads to me, like a series of essays rather than a coherent narrative. Nevertheless, there is no mistaking the excellent research carried out by the author. A great insight into the resurgence of some of the older, pre-digital technologies that we may have thought had gone for good.

bought to my boyfriend and he loved it!

Very well researched and written. Provides all kinds of little tidbits of information that I have always wondered about but never really looked into, like how a vinyl record is made and how film is developed commercially. Makes a good case for how technology and analog work together. Lots of examples of younger people doing innovative things in the real world, not just a bunch of old Luddites.

Eventually I had to stop highlighting as I was highlighting just about everything. I have to admit I read this on a kindle but the message in this book is both counterintuitive and true. This book is not only well written but important. It has articulated something I've felt for sometime

The book offers real human insights from its stories about vinyl records to thriving physical book stores to Shinola and more. With the shrill "digital world" hype surrounding us, this book is a sobering reminder that 'the world is analog and digital is always a representation'.And yes, this one - read the real book and not off Kindle.

This was recommended to me by a good old friend from my organization, as I was a teenager in the 80's I could relate to this book immediately.

Love the concept and lots of examples. It was one book I couldn't buy in audiobook version!

Great book, instructive.

A fun read! Excellent and well developed examples of the return of analog things in our lives, and why they matter to st least some of us.