Monday Book Review: Addicted to Busy: Recover for the Rushed Soul

Reading is one of the things that pulled me out of the dark hole of grief, and I love hearing about others’ take on the titles I’ve read. To that end, I’m pulling over one of my reviews from Goodreads each week. If you’ve read the book, I’d love to hear what you think in the comments below. Please note links in this article are affiliate links.

This week’s review: Addicted to Busy: Recovery for the Rushed Soul by Brady Boyd

Rating: 1/5

This is a book I really wanted to like but that ended up being not for me. As a Catholic, I found the Protestant theology and modernized Bible quotes to be distracting. But my biggest problem is the author’s personality. The book has a very “Look at me!” feel — so much so that I found myself checking halfway through to see if it was actually classified as a memoir rather than a personal growth book.

Beyond that, I found the author didn’t portray himself as a particularly charitable person. He completely lost me in the Shabbat Shalom chapter. First, he explains how a pastor at a neighboring church called him for help, saying she was exhausted. Rather than helping her with any practical suggestions or advice, he lectures her on how she needs to rest. I’m guessing she knew she needed to rest and was hoping for some more substantial advice (I.e. how do you rest when your church is in crisis as hers was). After that the author relates how a woman shared how busy she was with club sports for her kids. Rather than find out why their family did so many sports, the author assumes it’s for college scholarship money and Boom (his word, not mine), tells her why she’s wrong. Later in the book, he says a friend was “talking/whining” about how busy she is raising young children. There are other examples, but you get the idea.

While I’m sure the author is very nice in person, his writing style implies he walks around feeling smugly superior to everyone else. As a result, the book left a bad taste in my mouth.