Book Review: You Don't Have to Have a Dream

I recently listened (via Audible) to You Don’t Have to Have a Dream by Tim Minchin. I’m an unashamed fan of Tim’s and I was really pleased to see that he had published new content. Once again, a bonus was that Tim also narrated it. (I prefer books where the author reads it, not a hired voice actor).

Content

I was seriously surprised by how short this book was. I’m not sure how that made me feel: probably that I was hoping for more. This book is basically Tim repeating three graduation speeches that he’s given over the years, interspersed with some commentary about them. Generally, Tim tends to write fictional books.

That said, I’m always impressed when I listen to Tim, and this was no exception.

Thoughts on the book

There is some great advice in the book, and Tim’s dry humour (humor) shines through once again. It’s an easy listen or read though. I think the audiobook was less than an hour in length.

I thought the title sounded quite odd, given the endless advice you see online about having and following dreams, but it made perfect sense after listening to the book.

When checking reviews from others, I was surprised to see the number of complaints about the Kindle format of the book. If you are looking to get that format, it might be worth checking out if that’s still an issue first.

Summary

Overall, I really enjoyed listening to this book, and I did find it interesting. The content is covered well but I just kept wishing for more. I’m not sure what else it should contain but it just felt really, really short.

7 out of 10

2025-11-30