Terrible book. Carr can't make a convincing argument. He rolls out some stats and studies but completely fails to make any connection between the findings and his argument. He then tries to use some sort of "literary" style argument, where he keeps quoting well-known authors such as Emerson, Thoreau, etc. as if this is supposed to convince anyone.
About the only thing he has to offer is the argument that he, himself, is no longer capable of sustained reading, unable to go to a cabin in the mountains and unplug without having withdrawal symptoms.
He never managed to convince me, as a reader perfectly capable of long sustained reading and also someone who's spends most of the day riding the Intertubes, of anything other than that Nicholas Carr, as an individual, suffers the problem he says an entire society suffers.
Anyway, seeing as how I had to return the book and am now in the midst of packing and moving, I'll give this the more thorough review that it deserves. It'd be a real disservice to others if they were to waste their time reading the book.
-- http://cleandraws.com Wear Clean Draws ('coz there's 5 million ways to kill a CEO)