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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
This is a well researched book about where we should spend our time and attention. This definitely is not a book about how to do nothing. It's more so about how to improve life around you by doing nothing to the environment and taking the history of the land into consideration.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
buenas reflexiones, nada súper revelador pero tiene cierto impacto leer estos pensamientos e ideas que muchas veces también pasaron por mi cabeza, e igualmente poder verlos por escrito te da la oportunidad de digerirlos y procesarlos un rato post lectura de cada capítulo. la verdad estoy tratando de incoporar estas formas de vivir, como relacionarme desde la sensibilidad y no la conectividad o practicar la concentración en el presente y ser más consciente de a qué o a quién le dedico mi atención y mi tiempo, y supongo que la autora debe haber tenido como objetivo llegar a los lectores aunque sea de la manera más mínima e impactar en sus formas de pensar y vivir, así que lo has logrado Jenny Odell
Interesting but not that profound. She's navel-gazing at times, for sure. She likes how smart she is.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
A philosophical treaties, not a practical guide (with the exception of bird noticing). Well researched and written, but I could follow almost none of it. I don’t know what audience she’s writing for, but we don’t hang out.
hopeful
informative
reflective
slow-paced
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Appreciate some of the overarching messages, but the writing was surprisingly tedious. I can’t figure out how to actually link to this other reviewer Adriana’s review, but she says it perfectly: ‘While I do appreciate her own insights, I didn't feel that this book accomplished what it sought out to do - ''how'' to do nothing implies a methodology, an organized way of thinking through a process - even if the process is more philosophical than material - which was lacking here. Perhaps this had better been called ''I did Nothing: And Resisted the Attention Economy.”’
In theory I should’ve enjoyed this book. I am always interested by critiques of capitalism and culture. This book does deliver a little bit of these critiques. However it also has a lot of long passages that are dedicated to birdwatching as well as analyzing contemporary art. I find it difficult to categorize this book because it is part self-help, part social critique, part memoir, and part art analysis. This book doesn’t know what it wants to be and while you could argue that this is the entire point of the book, it doesn’t make it any less annoying to read. Many sections of this book show promise but are quickly ruined by birdwatching passages. I wish that the author would’ve written a much more focused book on this topic rather than a collection of essays that are vaguely related. Additionally, the self-help aspects of this book are shallow and do not provide systemic solutions. Taking a step back and paying attention to the world around us is all fun and stuff except not everyone has the privilege to do so. Funnily enough, the author acknowledges this but just moves on from this potential critique without properly countering it. Despite all of my frustration I did not hate this book. I quite enjoyed the history/social studies aspects of it and I wish the entire book was like that. Instead, I got a book that’s 20% about birds. If I wanted a degree in ornithology, I would’ve went to college. Final rating: 2/5.
Some wonderful ideas and personal stories but marred by an over reliance on the ideas of others and the trappings of academic language.