Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
5/5
Audiobook6 hours
Solitude: In Pursuit of a Singular Life in a Crowded World
Written by Michael Harris
Narrated by Kerry Shale
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
"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 Magazine
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.
Author
Michael Harris
Michael Harris grew up in Dunsmuir, Calif., served with the 1st Air Cavalry Division in Vietnam, has a B.A. in English from the University of Oregon, an M.A.T. from Harvard and an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, and worked as a reporter and editor for several West Coast newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times. He and his family live in Long Beach. He is the author of "The Chieu Hoi Saloon" (PM Press, 2010) and "Canyon: Two Dunsmuir Stories," both available on Amazon.
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