Trends 2000 Gerald Celente Warner Books, New York (1997) This book tries to be all things to all people as we look toward the New Millennium.  It is long on data, quotes, and breathless guidance, but short on information, structure, and wisdom. Book Review © Dr. Terry J. van der Werff, CMC

Trends 2000 derives from the collective trend tracking of the Trends Research Institute, which Celente founded in 1980 and continues to direct.  The Institute claims to track 300 trend categories on a daily basis.  One's first impression is that Celente tried to squeeze something from every one of these categories into a book of as many pages!  The result is an eclectic, almost unreadable stream of data, paragraphs from newspapers and magazines (maybe as much as 25% of the text), slender analysis, predictions, and guidance ("trendposts") on what the reader should do.

Not that there aren't some valuable things here.  There are, but I suspect the reader will find them hard to understand, to put into context, and to use, the trendposts notwithstanding.  The book lacks a clear structure, such as John Naisbitt gave to his Megatrends some years ago.  It lacks themes, with the result that the reader is constantly adrift with unconnected flotsam floating by.

Perhaps I'm of the old school where words were shaped into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, paragraphs into sections, and sections into chapters, with a discernible connection at every level.  This book is not such an example.  It gives the impression of having been thrown together on short notice from lots of fragments of trends written by many researchers from different viewpoints - written "sound bites," if you will - to capitalize on the public's fascination with the Year 2000.

There is something about the future for everyone here, but I'm afraid not enough to justify buying it.

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