April 13, 2021 – Thornbury
As my friend Georgia said, this book is a trojan horse. It looks like a self help book aimed at women with its fancy floral cover, but it's actually an incredible anti-capitalist manifesto drawing on art and literary theory, philosophy and more. It's so up my alley I'm mad that people didn't explain this earlier. From Diogenes to Hockney and everything in between, Jenny Odell is so well read and so interesting, I'll be eagerly awaiting her next book.
The theme of connecting to place and the natural world makes it a perfect companion to Sophie Cunningham's City of Trees, also highly recommended. If you're looking for a how-to, this ain't it, but if you're looking for a theoretical grounding to help you mount your own resistance against the attention economy, please read it!