Welcome to Litsy!

No big revelations here, feels patchworky. Capitalism & wage labor. Productivity, time management, task-oriented vs. schedule-oriented work, efficiency, nature, planetary time. Leisure, rest. Fungible time. Divisible time. Time & attention. The self-timers & the timed. Biggest question: is reading this a good use of time? 2023

66 “If you don‘t know what‘s coming down the line, preparing for the future becomes an infinite task.”

first books of the year are MORTAL FOLLIES by Alexis Hall (which i described as sexy mayhem with Napoleonic War jokes to a friend) and SAVING TIME by Jenny Odell which is even more intense and philosophical than HOW TO DO NOTHING and i am 1000% here for it.

(pink theme is accidental)

I finished my 8th book for #SummerEndReadathon. I really enjoyed parts - like the history of time - but mostly this book was kind of boring and a bit pointless. I feel like time is mostly dictated by society now. I'm also on the side that it is going too quickly. Maybe when I am retired (many years from now), time will be my own and hopefully will go a bit slower.
@TheSpineView

Been working through this one slowly but it feels more accessible to me than How to Do Nothing (or at least I‘m having though tangents regarding the informed consent of performance art less).

This was even better than I hoped it would be. I loved her first book and this careening meander through chronologies, geographies, ornithology, philosophy, ecology, and a myriad of other fractal paths of the narrative was exhilarating.

An interesting and rather academic look at the meaning of time. Why do we feel like time is scarce? Should time be a commodity? A clock is a tool, but not necessarily the only or best way to think about time. Our obsession with productivity (in the economy/industry at large, but also in our personal lives) is unfortunate and flawed. Slowness can be far more rewarding than speed. Adding her other book, How to Do Nothing, to my TBR.

Between a pick and a so-so for me. Really interesting information on the industrialization of time. But, and this is my usual complaint about non-fiction, the end lagged. The last 80 pages were a real slog for me.

Interesting and thought provoking book on ways that we can and do experience literal time.

If I close my eyes, can it be two weeks from now? #homereno

“But if you are truly an achievement-subject who is only wearing yourself down, then I suggest an adjustment of discretion: experimenting with what looks like mediocrity in some parts of your life. Then you might have a moment to wonder why and to whom it seems mediocre.”

“Originally, ‘pulling oneself up by one‘s bootstraps‘ was a metaphorical description of attempting the actually impossible.”

🤯🤯🤯

“The only reward for working faster is more work”

👎👎👎

I started “How to Do Nothing” in this same place almost exactly three years ago.

Well that is quite the endorsement. Onto the TBR it goes!