Book completed

[eve_prime]

Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock, by Jenny Odell. This is a very interesting book; she explores our relationship with time. The first chapters are well researched and a necessary foundation for the rest - she looks at the history of our cultural habit of trying to maximize our use of time, both for work and recreation, and also how this plays out differently for people of different status and with different obligations or limitations. In the rest of the book, she explores different approaches to quality time. Throughout, there's an ongoing story of visiting different places in the Bay Area, which was fun for me because I've been to many of them (the Stanford Mall, the parklands between Palo Alto and the ocean, the huge cemetery in North Oakland). She shares interesting insights from philosophers who have given their attention to time, especially Henri Bergson, and also from indigenous writers. I was already familiar with Robin Wall Kimmerer, but it turns out there's also an Australian indigenous academic whose book I hope to read soon: Tyson Yunkapunta. I expect that I'll be reading this book again and getting even more out of it.

Comments

[kaishin108]

that sounds interesting! i wonder if i can make time to read it, hee1

[eve_prime]

Ha ha!

I think I would start with her other book, "How To Do Nothing."

[kaishin108]

that is even funnier, hee hee!

[eve_prime]

Ha! She's writing about how social media and social pressures are leading us to surrender all of our time to things we wouldn't otherwise choose to do. You're a good example of someone who is good at pursuing what they do want!

[kaishin108]

we really have to pick and choose these days, that's for sure.

[eve_prime]

Very true!