"In Defense of Dabbling" explores seven aspects of being an intentional amateur and how this perspective on life opens one up to a more joyful lived experience. This book is part memoir and part journalistic as the author weaves in her own experience with interviews and research.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and I appreciated the author's vulnerability in sharing her own journey towards embracing this mindset. The seven principles felt intuitive, resonated, and I appreciated that they were each supported by research and interviews with experts within each area.

At times, the conversational style of writing wasn't for me, but it did add to the personal feeling of the narrative, as this isn't a purely academic look at the topic. I found some of the later chapters were the stronger arguments in the book and wished the author had spoken to some of those ideas (like transcendence and awe) sooner.

Overall, this was an interesting and enjoyable quick read for anyone who is looking for a framework to structure their own experimental mindset.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher — I received an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Many thanks to Broadleaf Books and NetGalley for an ARC ebook of this.

I found this book interesting and easy to read. I enjoyed the way that the author took you on the journey of finding the things that she likes to do, without the pressure of having to be the best at them.

As someone who is also a bit of a perfectionist who likes to do a wide variety of hobbies, I found this book to be very helpful and eye-opening.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this ARC.

I love reading books about hobbies and dabbling, so this topic was right up my alley. 

The book is written in a very approachable conversational style and is very readable. 

The book is a lot shorter than I expected it would be (read it as an ebook), so temper your expectations there. 

I liked the way this book approached trying new things, it was a great way of structuring the book.

I loved the list of hobby ideas at the end.