Title: Considering the Journey: One Doctor’s Perspective
Author: Dr. Jeffrey T. Evans
Publisher: Bookside Press
ISBN: 978-1-77883-075-4
Genre: Non-Fiction / Self-Help
Pages: 94
Reviewed by: Arthur Thares
Pacific Book Review
Niche books aren’t anything new, but Dr. Evans may have found a niche that has yet to be tapped into. This unique book swings back and forth between memoir and self-help, targeted to those considering attaining their Ph.D. While there is a very specific audience Considering the Journey is targeting, everyone can glean quite a bit from the book and learning about Dr. Evans’ unlikely journey to Ph.D.
Considering the Journey: One Doctor’s Perspective is the story of Dr. Jeffrey T. Evans’ experience earning his Ph.D. and everything he learned along the way. Most of the book focuses on the strategies he used in his personal and professional life to balance earning a Ph.D. later in life. Dr. Evans offers some insight into what made him choose the path to earning his doctorate and many of the obstacles that got in his way. The other half of the book – and the main idea behind it – is aimed at helping potential doctoral candidates decide if it is the right path for them. He talks about the potential struggles one faces in their quest for a Ph.D., the reasons why getting one is so challenging, and offers tips and suggestions to make the journey, if not easier, at least more bearable.
This book is short and to the point, which is necessary for such a niche book. Dr. Evans explains how the book was initially planned to be longer, but he feels as if it would have distracted from the main point. Considering the Journey is easy to follow as he made the right choice by not filling it with a bunch of jargon. Dr. Evans also makes it a point in the book to be humble and instill that humbleness in the readers. Although this book is aimed at people at a post-graduate level, it doesn’t read like a textbook. It very much has the feel of a biography which just happens to have some advice for those thinking about a doctoral program.
This book is not for everyone, but that is its design. If you are someone who is on the fence about whether they should go back to school again for a Ph.D., you will get a lot out of it. Even those who read this book and decide that the doctorate route is not for them will take something from these pages just from Dr. Evans’ life experience. If I were thinking about committing to or already committed to a Ph.D. program, I would absolutely buy this book today.
