“how to do nothing: resisting the attention economy” is a highly praised book, and the publisher made it very clear via blurbs on both front and back covers. (side note: is jia tolentino really so high profile to put her quote on the front?)
if you dread another self-help book with a checklist at the end, i have good news for you – there nothing like that behind the flowery cover. this book rather belongs in the section of modern philosophy. author is not trying to give the reader prepackaged and easy-to-digest ideas, but hands them a cookbook, if you allow me this tired methaphor.
i appreciated the way jenny odell quoted and referenced greek classics – giving the necessary exposition but without overexplaining. as someone who has surface level familiarity with the subject, i got a nice refresher and a prompt to return to philosophy in my reading.
who would i recommend this book to? to my every terminally online friend (waves at #productivity) who pondered at least once “is this whole internet thing making me a worse human?”
opinions about books 