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Partway Through a Book, Time Feels Different
As you learn more about an author, it can change how you feel about their book
My havurah (Jewish fellowship study group) decided to read Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, a bestseller published last year and featured in the New York Times. The author, Oliver Burkeman, has a Jewish background — someone in his family escaped the Holocaust — and he was raised “non-spiritual” Quaker. Our Jewish group is secular, and a member had recommended the book, thinking the topic might be a good fit for our interests.
I learned something about time, although what I ultimately learned from interacting with the book was not something contained in the book itself.
What the Book Says About Time
I liked it from the introduction. Time-management advice, Burkeman says, runs past “the maddening truth about time,” which is that
“it’s like an obstreperous toddler: the more you struggle to control it, to make it conform to your agenda, the further it slips from your control. Consider all the technology intended to help us gain the upper hand over time: by any sane logic, in a world with dishwashers, microwaves, and jet engines, time ought to feel more expansive and abundant, thanks to all the hours freed…
