The World is Flat (book review)

This book has been sitting on my shelf for quite a while, so instead of reading it, I borrowed it on CD from the library.  I renewed it twice before returning it, with 3 CDs left that I hadn't heard.  It was too long, and it was hard to stay interested.  I'm not sure if it is Thomas Friedman's writing or the reader's delivery, or a combination, along with the fact that is about a decade old, but I found myself listening to the radio instead of the book.  I like some of the history-telling, but the stories seem too wordy, and I find some of his ideas or attitudes a little too liberal for me.

It is a book about globalization, and I certainly accept that globalization is happening and will continue to change our world.  Americans sometimes perceive globalization as either losing jobs or gaining exotic products.  The exchange of information and ideas on a global scale is both inspiring and scary--good ideas and bad ones can gain traction.  I thought Mr. Friedman spent a lot of time talking about China and India--and that's okay, but it just seemed like something was missing.  Or is it that there was just too much overall that I forgot what else he talked about?!

About 37% (at best) of Americans have a passport, and many of them do not travel internationally.  (To be fair, we have a huge land mass and many Americans travel domestically.)  There would possibly be less fear of globalization if more of us had firsthand experience of the rest of the world.  I think that Mr. Friedman  tries to show that we're more alike than we know.  Hot, Flat, and Crowded was a better read for me, but maybe because it was more about the need for a "green revolution" rather than the outsourcing side of globalization.  So, do I keep my copy of The World is Flat, or recycle it?