Hi everyone,

I recently came across a book called PhD: An uncommon guide to research, writing, and PhD life by James Hayton. It looks fantastic but before I splurge on a book I would just like to see if anyone else here has read it, and if you have, would you recommend it being worthwhile? Being rather pricey I would rather be sure first.
Right now I'm seeking as much guidance as possible as my supervisor tends to have a rather detached approach. I'd far rather navigate the chaos that is a PhD as early as possible than sink due to a lack of guidance and know-how.

Hi StephanieK,

The cheapest copy I can find is from World of Books and is 8.99 pbk, and is in very good condition. However, if you look on Youtube for James Hayton there is an excellent lecture entitled 'How to get through your PhD without going insane'. It's one hour, twenty nine minutes long. Having just looked at as much of the book as I could on the Amazon preview, I would say that a lot of the most relevant material is covered in the lecture. I saw this lecture a couple of months ago and, although I got my PhD in 2006, I actually learnt a few things from it that I did not know! Hope that helps.

We do review books on PhD study over on the FindAPhD blog, but I'm afraid Hayton's isn't among them. . . yet. If anyone would like to review it (or review a similar work) do let me know.

Mark
FindAPhD Editor Person

The book is very good, I have a copy I will let go for £5 (plus post) if you are interested. I found the book very useful in the run up to my Viva.
Max