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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
informative
slow-paced
I loved this book! I love Jenny Odell. I read 75% of this in an airport/airplane which was an interesting way to experiment with the expansion and contraction of time. I probably read it for 5 hours straight which is highly atypical for me.
I think people criticize Odell's books in part because the titles are so misleading! This isn't about saving time per se, just as "how to do nothing" wasn't about leisure or whatever. Having finished this, I think it's about *saving* time---like re-engaging with it as a way to contemplate our life on this earth, or with one another, etc.
This is a deep and thoughtful exploration of what time is--how it's used against us by corporate interests, what it means according to class, race, geography, and climate change. She uses art, politics, poetics, and activism to explore the idea of time. Close to the end of the book she talks about time in carceral contexts, which is pretty devastating--about sentencing for various offenses, the concept of a life in spent in prison, the the erosion of programming for inmates, and what that implies about the purpose of incarceration.
She goes on to talk about death as a way of running down time, and conceptions of death being about ending/contracting vs beginning/expansion.
I love this book!
I think people criticize Odell's books in part because the titles are so misleading! This isn't about saving time per se, just as "how to do nothing" wasn't about leisure or whatever. Having finished this, I think it's about *saving* time---like re-engaging with it as a way to contemplate our life on this earth, or with one another, etc.
This is a deep and thoughtful exploration of what time is--how it's used against us by corporate interests, what it means according to class, race, geography, and climate change. She uses art, politics, poetics, and activism to explore the idea of time. Close to the end of the book she talks about time in carceral contexts, which is pretty devastating--about sentencing for various offenses, the concept of a life in spent in prison, the the erosion of programming for inmates, and what that implies about the purpose of incarceration.
She goes on to talk about death as a way of running down time, and conceptions of death being about ending/contracting vs beginning/expansion.
I love this book!
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
intro, conclusion, chapter 1&5 most memorable
The most urgent (sorry, I had to) and significant book I have read so far this year.
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
Another Jenny Odell book that changed my life!! This book started with “time is a colonial construct” and ended with ego death. Wow.
As with How to Do Nothing, I expect to be thinking about this book for a long time. Who defines time and productivity? How does that intersect with race, privilege, culture, nature, climate and language? All the simple questions!
A ponderous tome. I found it difficult to keep my attention on this book, which felt like an uninterrupted stream of consciousness. Though I agreed with many of Odell’s points (and even more so, the points made in all of the included quotations), I found this book uninspiring and lacking the spark of ingenuity found in How to do Nothing.
informative
reflective
informative
slow-paced
This book was fine but I felt like it over explained and might have benefited from being shorter so that the reader cold have space to think about what things meant themselves. It fet like there was a little too much of everything to feel like there was a cohesive point. Still it was an interesting topic, however.