The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere

The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere by Pico Iyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First thoughts: This was such a short and fast read that I felt like I should re-read it almost immediately to spend more time with it. I didn't want to rush through what I thought was a meditative and quiet book. Even the pages between chapters, photos of expansive landscapes, felt like they were meant to give pause to the reading process. I know stillness and slowness are different, but both call for attention and intention. Some sentences have a Yoda-like order/feel to them: object, then subject, then verb.

Favorite quotes:

"It's deliberately short, so you can read it in one sitting and quickly return to your busy (perhaps overbusy) life." -p 6 (So true--I read it while waiting in line at the DMV. Irony not lost on me there--I was definitely going nowhere for some time.)

"Going nowhere...isn't about turning your back on the world; it's about stepping away now and then so that you can see the world more clearly and love it more deeply." -p 13 (Absence makes the heart grow fonder.)

"Heaven is the place where you think of nowhere else." -p 15

Recommended for: movers and shakers who need a breather, breathers who need a focus point, impatient and anxious folk, those seeking some quiet.

Final thoughts: In the few hours it will take you to read this book, you'll already have your first lesson of stillness in. What a short and sweet launch point for an adventure in going nowhere.

Notes: I received this book through the Goodreads First Reads program. Opinions mine.


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