Robin Marx's Writing Repository

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on May 2, 2012.

Context: Further Selected Essays on Productivity, Creativity, Parenting, and Politics in the 21st Century

By Cory Doctorow – Tachyon Publications – October 1, 2011

Review by Robin Marx

This is a much more balanced collection of essays than the previous volume, Content. There's still a great deal of material dealing with Doctorow's two favorite topics—the evils of Digital Rights Management software and how “Big Content” is attempting to undermine Internet culture through the abuse of copyright law—but he also mixes it up with a variety of other subjects. There are essays about his approach to writing and what tools he uses, new media versus old media, tips on raising a techno-savvy child, and a critique of the freemium business model.

Context is a more mature volume than its predecessor. When compared to Content, Doctorow seems to have developed as a writer, and his views are more well-rounded and eloquently expressed. Much like the first collection of essays, this book is pretty superfluous for a regular BoingBoing reader, but it should be a worthwhile read for the uninitiated. I recommend that the first book, Content, be skipped entirely in favor of this sequel, as Context touches upon similar topics in a less monotonous manner.

★★★☆☆

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