Writing style
Conversational · Direct · Technical
Apple BooksPermanent Record
Biography and memoir
- Print length
- 339 pagesPan Books, 2020
Description
Permanent Record is Edward Snowden’s memoir of his path from an online-oriented suburban childhood into intelligence work connected to the CIA and NSA. He recounts helping build a United States government system designed to collect phone calls, texts, and emails on an unprecedented scale, then deciding to expose that mass-surveillance apparatus. The book follows his transition from intelligence worker to whistleblower and the exile that followed. Framed as a candid account of life in the digital age, it combines personal history with an inside view of surveillance technology and the choices that led Snowden to reveal a system he had helped create.
Reading profile
About this profile
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
- Writing
- How much attention the sentences and language require.
- Ideas
- How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
- Structure
- How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
- Background knowledge
- Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
- Emotional intensity
- Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.
Pace
Moderate
Tone
Cerebral · Earnest · Intimate · Reflective
Structure
Chronological nonfiction
Focus
Character · Ideas · Voice
Emotional intensity
3 / 5
Reading complexity
1–5 · higher means more demanding- Writing
- 3 / 5
- Ideas
- 3 / 5
- Structure
- 2 / 5
- Background knowledge
- 2 / 5
Themes
Book details
For the print edition listed above.
- Publisher
- Pan Books
- Language
- English
- ISBN
- 9781529035698
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