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Title: Solitude
Subtitle: In Pursuit of a Singular Life in a Crowded World
Author: Michael Harris
Narrator: Kerry Shale
Format: Unabridged
Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
Language: English
Release date: 06-27-17
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 11 votes
Genres: Science & Technology, Psychology & The Mind
Publisher's Summary:
With a foreword by Nicholas Carr, author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Shallows.
Today, society embraces sharing like never before. Fueled by our dependence on mobile devices and social media, we have created an ecosystem of obsessive connection. Many of us now lead lives of strangely crowded isolation: We are always linked, but only shallowly so.
The capacity to be alone, properly alone, is one of life's subtlest skills. Real solitude is a powerful resource we can call upon - a crucial ingredient for a rich interior life. It inspires reflection, allows creativity to flourish, and improves our relationships with ourselves and, unexpectedly, with others. Idle hands can, in fact, produce the extraordinary. In living bigger and faster, we have forgotten the joys of silence and undervalued how profoundly it can revolutionize our lives.
This audiobook is about discovering stillness inside the city, inside the crowd, inside our busy lives. With wit and energy, award-winning author Michael Harris weaves captivating true stories with reporting from the world's foremost brain researchers, psychologists, and tech entrepreneurs to guide us toward a state of measured connectivity that balances quiet and companionship.
Solitude is a beautiful and convincing statement on the transformative power of being alone.
Critic Reviews:
"Kerry Shale's reading delivers lots of information clearly as Harris discusses technological developments that threaten our solitude today. While much of Harris's book is critical of those developments, Shale also captures Harris's humor and occasional indignance." (
AudioFile)
Members Reviews:
A Thoughtful Reminder of Something We Are Losing
This is a good book. It's a thoughtful reflection on what has happened to solitude in our hyper- connected world. Much of the book is a chronicle of the author's own search for solitude. There are some side journeys to interview various brain scientists or authors or other people who are thinking about the same thing. It's a short book and easy to read and yet it does stimulate one's own reflection on the subject. It's just an important reminder of what we might be losing and I can easily recommend it.
Sizzles with liberating energy
I read the advance copy a couple of months back, and "Solitude" really moved me. As the corporate lock on both politics and our individual autonomy tightens, along comes "Solitude" sizzling with liberating energy. It's an entertaining grapple with current brain science, literature, and philosopy, and is smart, off-beat and ultimately moral. I'm sure this book will contribute to the âGreat Turningâ from an outdated, planet-smothering orthodoxy to a fresh, diverse, and healthy Earth-culture. Do check it out!
Interesting ideas
I'm a big fan of solitude so why didn't I give this book five stars? Because I don't think it's really about solitude so much. It seems to be about disconnecting from today's constant connections but even that message gets garbled in the chapters on love letters, on writing, and on death . I think the author makes some good points about how media influences us (subtly and not so subtly) and some great point about reading as a solitary activity but I was expecting more encouragement for the pursuit of solitude.
