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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
This book is astounding, and impossible to categorize or describe adequately. Jenny Odell considers our linear, productivity-driven view of time, and offers different ways to change our perspective. There are long passages about nature, climate change, the economy, social justice movements, crip time, houseworkers' wages, Pando in Utah, ochre sea stars, I could go on and on. I was never not fascinated. Reading one of her books is like dipping your toes in hundreds of other books written over hundreds of years. She quotes from them, explains them, helps you understand them. This will sound dramatic, but every time I sat down to read this book, I left feeling more human, or more aware of my humanity--aren't those both the same thing anyhow?
I can't think of a person who I wouldn't recommend this book to.
Thank you NetGalley for the digital ARC of this book.
I can't think of a person who I wouldn't recommend this book to.
Thank you NetGalley for the digital ARC of this book.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
jenny odell’s books are always difficult for me to rate and land on how exactly i feel about them. there’s not really anything she says that i disagree with, but also not much that i haven’t already learned from other sources. similar to what another reviewer on here said, this book kind of felt like an annotated bibliography of the twitter feed and goodreads read shelf of someone who follows the same intellectual circles as i do. there are a lot of good ideas here, but only tenuously connected and not really forming an overarching independent statement.
Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock by Jenny Odell is a matter of fact title, that belies a deep philosophical treatise on what it means to be in existence, and how to change our conceptualization of time. Heavily influenced by musings during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the isolation and alteration of the experience of time, Jenny Odell pulls together various sources of non-Western thinking to create a very deeply moving book about life itself. It probably would have been easier for me to read in a print copy, as opposed to the audiobook because of the meandering nature of the anecdotes versus more philosophical thought. But overall I greatly enjoyed this book and it makes me want to revisit her previous work, How to Do Nothing, to see if I might have a different interpretation now after more time has passed since the isolation of the pandemic.
4.5 stars* I devoured this. She mentioned many of my favorite subjects to research (like railways and timezones or the prison industrial complex and its relationship to time manipulation); however, I don’t know if her intent for us to “save time” or rather, claim back our time, was fully resolved. I gained the most from the introduction, where she says that we cannot frame “rest” as a form of productivity or preparation for more work. Despite it, I am left with unresolved feelings and questions.
So well researched, it introduced me to many new authors that i did not know as well as reminding me of books that i have which i have not yet read. I didn't really get the parts in italics recounting the author's travel that i was challenged to connect to some of the text, but i appreciate- i think - what the author was trying to achieve with it, albeit difficult to track. Photos did not resolve that tracking as their reproduction was inadequate to create the intended resonance. An intellectual delight to be led along paths connecting thinkers through time and cultural developments.
informative
slow-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
This was recommended to me after I shared my love of Oliver Burkeman’s 4,000 Weeks. I found it unsatisfying.
There are some really good, transcendental ideas in here, though they are certainly not new. Unfortunately it felt really incoherent as a ‘book’ - more like reading someone’s personal notebook than a book. It meanders back and forth through inequality, a history of capitalism, ecology, and other ideas, with a lot of naturalist journaling; without structure or useful threads.
I made some notes that were helpful; but ultimately I t left me feeling like I’d been grazing on a platter of nibbles rather than having eaten than a meal.
There are some really good, transcendental ideas in here, though they are certainly not new. Unfortunately it felt really incoherent as a ‘book’ - more like reading someone’s personal notebook than a book. It meanders back and forth through inequality, a history of capitalism, ecology, and other ideas, with a lot of naturalist journaling; without structure or useful threads.
I made some notes that were helpful; but ultimately I t left me feeling like I’d been grazing on a platter of nibbles rather than having eaten than a meal.
Like "how to do nothing", this book sounds like it might be about one thing but then goes deep in another direction. In this case, it had a lot of relatable themes like climate dread, existential angst, nihilism, feeling bad about the pandemic, feeling bad about the smoke season (especially in fall 2020 in california), meandering through familiar locations around the bay area...
I think the bit about the history of time linked with capitalism was better explained in the 4,000 weeks book.
The part that stuck with me the most was the idea of an axis of time perpendicular to the sequential one we usually think about, and like, upwellings of time where a lot of meaningful things can happen all at once.
I think the bit about the history of time linked with capitalism was better explained in the 4,000 weeks book.
The part that stuck with me the most was the idea of an axis of time perpendicular to the sequential one we usually think about, and like, upwellings of time where a lot of meaningful things can happen all at once.