3.5 stars. Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an ARC. This book tries to explain what mastery, the real work (as it relates to magicians), is and how one can acquire it. The author decides to learn about mastery by tasking himself to learn new skills and in the process learning from masters the nuisances that make them great as opposed to just good at something. He studies drawing, magic (through his son who trains to be a magician), boxing, dancing and my favorite, he finally learns to drive. He also gets quite vulnerable as he tries to master a personal issue; you'll need to read the book for that one. Yet, he finds that mastery is all around him and it's just in the looking that we can find it. He challenges to the reader to look at their own life to realize that mastery is something we all possess.

I'm a longtime Adam Gopnik fan. His long, insightful, and critical essays have always given me food for thought and challenged me to think beyond my usual frames of reference. This book does all of that too. I particularly appreciated the many examples that Gopnik included throughout the book. Even though I knew about several of the people and their particular areas of expertise, Gopnik probed deeper and in ways that I hadn't done before. This book needs to be required reading for all those readers who don't care for the usual self-improvement books that give you pat answers for every complex problem. I know I will be rereading this many times and giving the book as a gift to friends and family for years to come.

I have always enjoyed Adam Gopnik's writing style and while some of these chapters (all centered around a theme (on the mystery of mastery), not all of these kept my interest. He is a beautiful writer and talks about flow being a bunch of fragments. I enjoyed his attempts to learn to draw to see if that helps him become a better art critic for example. I also enjoyed the chapter on his trying to learn how to drive and the same time as his teenage son. He does reveal personal phobias in this book and I appreciated his candor. Even though these chapters all relate to the main theme, they could be read as stand-alone essays.
Thank you to Netgalley and W. W. Norton & Company for an ARC and I voluntarily left this review.

I couldn’t get into this one. The subject matter just didn’t catch my attention and it didn’t seem to enlighten or provide any groundbreaking details that were useful in any kind of “self help” capacity.

Long fascinated by what it takes to master anything in life, I appreciated Adam Gopnik's deep dive into accomplishment and creation in THE REAL WORK. While not as straightforward as might be best for the reader, the book represents a genuine grappling with meaning and connection, the network of a world created by all of us masters contributing what we have to make the whole. Some of the chapters appealed more than others and some of the language felt convoluted as if a little further consideration would have resulted in a better-expressed message, ultimately I enjoyed spending time with Gopnik, figuring out what makes the world tick, how we learn and develop and master. I received a copy of this book and these opinions are my own, unbiased thoughts.

I'm not sure I've ever read anything by Adam Gopnik that I DIDN'T like, and "The Real Work" doesn't buck that enviable trend. What could have been a rather trite gimmick, a neophyte apprenticing himself to masters of various arts and metiers, becomes, in Gopnik's hands, an exercise in wonder. The humility with which he approaches these endeavors is endearing, and the deep respect for the mastery he finds all around him, not just in his tutors but across the folds of society, is contagious. Throughout the arc of the book, the reader may start to see the world a bit differently, noticing the care and, yes, mastery, in the execution of some of the things we may take for granted every day, and appreciating for perhaps the first time how our lives are made more beautiful, more interesting, and even possible at it's most basic level through the carefully honed accomplishment of others.

At a juncture in our collective lives when felicity is in short supply, Gopnik's effortlessly gorgeous writing, his keen but sensitive perspicacity, and his unfaltering admiration for his subjects make "The Real Work" a tender jolt of joy.

THE REAL WORK by Adam Gopnik, best-selling author and New Yorker writer, is subtitled "On the Mystery of Mastery." Gopnik explores ideas about accomplishment and what it takes to acquire a new skill. However, his readers will really have to focus to follow his argument and parse statements like, "Doing something well for a lifetime actually teaches us less about what the real work is than doing something badly can teach us when we start doing it anew." Gropnik does attempt to summarize his work, citing three themes: (a) flow is always a function of fragments; (b) everything we do involves everything we do; and (c) when we look to understand mastery what we find are masters. To me, that language will be difficult for our students to paraphrase and I do not think they will be engaged with this book (perhaps due in part to relatively little life experience?). Decide for yourself – THE REAL WORK received a starred review from Kirkus ("though he occasionally gets a little overly academic for a general audience").

I couldn’t get into this one so it ended up being a DNF. Maybe it’s the season of life I’m in right now, but the tone wasn’t really for me. It felt a bit repetitive and fluffy.

Adam Gopnik investigates, and attempts, to understand how mastery is achieved. The term 'Real Work' comes magicians who are fascinated by who does a particular trick the best. There are interesting tidbits scattered throughout the book, but what Gopnik lingers on is the stories and his attempts to try to master a different subject each chapter. While interesting, it also veers into the boring section because of how long he lingers on each lesson. Personally, I prefer engaging essays and personal anecdotes over long, lingering paragraphs that don't provide in-depth analysis, but that's just me. Overall, this book is useful, but somewhat boring for not capturing the same interesting voice as a Malcolm Gladwell book.

The pages of Adam Gopnik’s newest tome reveal the processes behind mastery, his delineations between work and real work, and accomplishment and achievement. On a journey to uncover further truths of life, practice, and how individuals in varying fields including the visual arts, social work, and boxing, Gopnik apprenticed with several. During his apprenticeships, which encompassed discussions, viewing, touring, and practice, his assumptions and stringent conceptions of mastery begin to falter, opening space for new notions of creativity, learning, and the how and why of it all. Gopnik threads his newly developed “Seven Mysteries of Mastery” throughout Real Work. (If you are anything like me, I highlighted those mysteries like a fiend and even popped those on some Post-it notes…just in case.)

I work with older adults who are predominantly retired, many from a handful of paid jobs over the years, and most from a single career over a lifetime. Their careers and families are the touchstones that they reflect upon most. "The Real Work: On the Mystery of Mastery" is a book that many would enjoy, or I could insert portions into discussions since many are also fans of The New Yorker (and debating one another!).

Thank you to Adam Gopnik, NetGalley, and Liveright for the advance eARC

3 stars.

It was somewhat a disappointment. I usually try to find something good in any book I read, even if I wasn’t impressed overall. I tried reading it in the morning, I tried reading it at night, during the day, on my days off, and the result was always the same - I was nodding off. So, it may be a good investment if you have trouble falling asleep, otherwise I see no point reading this. The author knows how to write, he knows how to structure sentences, he likes fancy words, he couldn’t keep me interested at all. He’s a master. Technically, it should have been near perfect. But it lacks magic.

Some books you read to learn something, and you may dislike the style, or writer’s voice, or even disagree with their attitude, but you learn something. Other books you read to get another perspective, to see the familiar through someone else’s story, you don’t gain any factual knowledge, but you enjoy the experience, you marvel at how their mind works, you live through it, you feel. Well, that was neither. This is a book written was the sole purpose of writing a book. It doesn’t teach anything, it doesn’t move you, it doesn’t entertain you. You just read it as a grounded ten-year-old, forcing your mind, dragging your eyes to the next line of text.

A few minutes in I already knew I wasn’t enjoying it. But you don’t judge a book that quickly. About halfway through I had a passing feeling it was getting better, but that didn’t last longer than three pages. It has a couple witty observations, but that doesn’t make a good book. If it was split in a number of essays, I’d probably enjoy some of them, but put together, it just didn’t work for me at all. I loved the thought provoking observations about family.

Overall impression: a dull book with a few quirky, witty observations. Not worth the effort it takes to plow through.

‘The Real Work’ is one of those books that make you jealous of its author. Adam Gopnik, of the New Yorker, spent years mastering different skills to come up with a thesis on mastery. Reminiscent of Malcolm Gladwell it’s a fun blend of humor and science.

I've enjoyed his other work over the years so I was primed to like this. I largely did but there was sort of a remove to the book that felt was at odds with the subject matter. He was learning these things but didn't reflect on them as much as you'd think he would. Nothing really pulled together. Not that he needed spell it out but for something that clearly took forever to write and had a lot of effort behind it I sort of expected more. Maybe he was just tired from all the activities?

This is a study of the nature of accomplishment, Gopnik will explain. The doing, which begins by doubting. And practice, which is the root of accomplishment. And accomplishment, which is the mystery of mastery. The mystery of accomplishment will unfold in a sequence of seven “Mysteries of Mastery” wherein he will become the apprentice and reflect on the nature of his work and many things beyond it. From art to magic, sourdough to driving, the choices he makes are as mysterious as the experience of seeking mastery. Therein lies the challenge of this book. It is filled with insight and beauty that share space with magic and card tricks. I could not reconcile trickery and slight of hand with the heights of language he reaches in other sections of the book, however magical mastery might seem.

Why is it some people aspire to mastery something rather than be mastered by something? How is it some are drawn to expertise while others are satisfied with mediocrity? What methods help the truly great achieve as they do? These are some of the questions author XXX sets out to answer in his book, The Real Work: On the Mystery of Mastery. The book is full of interesting stories and thought-provoking anecdotes. It may just inspire you to better yourself in a small but profound way or you my just enjoy being taken along on the journey of exploration. Either way, it’s a book worth reading.

Gopnik's book examines why we become so good at certain skills or jobs. The term comes from magicians who are fascinated by who does a particular trick the first and best. There are some interesting bits about everything from magic, to baking, to driving. Each chapter is organized around another important component of mastery.

The author whose work I think this book most closely resembles is Malcolm Gladwell, who tries to distill key ideas through personal anecdotes. While there are some interesting narratives in the book, I just felt that they went on for far too long. There was too much narrative and not enough analysis. Yes, the examples and connections Gopnik makes are important, and they even work. However, he doesn't take much time to really put a critical lens to them; when he speaks about driving, I can infer a little about what he's trying to say, but he doesn't clearly pull ideas together. There is some merit to readers doing this work for themselves, but he needed to at least set it up in a way that would carry over to a reader-led analysis.