How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell
In May, we read The Art Stillness by Pico Iyer. We had a great turnout of about fifteen Book Clubbers, who gathered at Andrea’s house at A-Z West. Our conversation about Iyer’s call for stillness brought up many topics including the influence of technology, pressures towards productivity, and how life in a vibrant small town community influences each of our experiences of “stillness.”
This month, we will be reading another book that asks how stillness might transform our lives and communities. In her 2019 book How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, Jenny Odell goes deeper into the question of stillness than Iyer does in his short TED talk. Rather than arguing for doing nothing in a way that could be interpreted as isolating, apolitical, or coming from a place of unacknowledged privilege, Odell makes an argument for refusing attention misdirecting devices such as social media by refocusing our attention towards the world around us, in ways that might increase collective engagement.
As the weather gets hotter here in the desert, we thought this would be a great time for the quarterly virtual meeting that Book Clubbers have requested, so this month we will be gathering for a virtual meeting on July 11th at 7:00pm PST on Zoom to discuss How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell.
Used copies of How to Do Nothing are available for less than $10 from many online bookstores such as AbeBooks.com and Bookshop.org. We also recommend checking out Libby and Overdrive, both great free resources for checking out library e-books and audiobooks! As a reminder, you don’t have to read any or all of the book to participate in Book Club, we will always include you in the conversation.
We are requesting that all interested book clubbers RSVP here. This will help us track expected attendance. At 7pm PST on Monday, July 11, click the link below to join the discussion!
Zoom meeting link to join:
us06web.zoom.us/j/86258877361
Meeting ID: 862 5887 7361
If you have questions about using Zoom, feel free to email us.
Here’s a list of upcoming Book Club picks, if you want to get a head start:
August: TBD (email us with suggestions or if you want to host this meeting)
September 5: Chosen with author Stephen Mills (locals: (email: elena@hdts.site text: email us) to pick up a free copy)
October 7: Brown Neon with author Raquel Gutiérrez (pre-order here)
After a brief hiatus during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, our in-person book club, formerly known as Kip’s Desert Book Club, resumed in January 2022 as the Desert Research Library Book Club (or DRL Book Club, for short). Each month, a member of the current Desert Research Library Artist Cohort or another member of the book club community selects a book from the library as that month’s book club selection. We meet at various locations throughout the high desert to discuss the books and share snacks.
The DRL Book Club grew out of our long-standing tradition of monthly book club meetings, first established by Katie Bachler during her Scout residency, then carried on as Kip’s Desert Book Club, from October 2014 through April 2021.
