festive_fossil 's review for:

How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell

3.25

challenging informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

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I am still gathering my thoughts after finishing this book, but I did want to note a few things while it is still fresh. As other reviewers have commented, this is NOT a self-help book. I was expecting a bit of an elevated motivational book, this is NOT that. It has much more of a literary essay feel, and if you are not prepared for meandering and a bit of philosophical wool-gathering, then this will be difficult to get through. I think that audiobook format did not serve me well, either, as I absorb denser books like this much easier when reading them. This is not to say that this book was 'bad' or unhelpful. Odell discusses a lot of really interesting topics, though I could have done without some of the art talk which went completely over my head. I really appreciated Odell's obsession with nature, and connecting to the present material world. That's material as in tangible, not the consumerist collection of things. Her term of 'manifest dismantling' was also really interesting. I think this is a book I'd need to read several times to get the full benefit. And with that, I am going to end this meandering collection of thoughts on How to Do Nothing. Maybe tomorrow I will go take an extra long walk.