Reader’s Reviews > What Is It Like to Be an Addict?: Understanding Substance Abuse > Status Update

It’s refreshing to have an intellectually challenging text again. I’m following the text well enough to understand the basic idea so far, the author wants to open all understandings of addiction to create the widest, and in his estimation, most accurate scope of what addiction is, so that it can be fully understood and encompassed in the respective sciences that it ebbs in and out of.

Unlike what I was worried about, I think the book is a great read so far. Its scholarly nature is actually very refreshing and something I can parse easily enough. The text is dense so it requires more time to read payed and passages, but nothing has been unapproachable.

As I begin this book, I feel daunted by the work in front of me. I am not usually a non fiction reader and so reading a largely scientific account feels like a large step into a grand unknown.