Absolutely. The aggravating thing with Newport is that for a guy advocating "minimalism", he churns out too much needless crap. The irony seems definitely lost on him.

As for avoiding the plague that is the filler books, a robust solution is to pick books that have stood the test of time. Hard to beat that strategy. At least that's how I roll. The onus is us, as the reader, to be ruthless about picking the books that truly deserve our attention.