Have you ever read a book that resonated with you more so than usual because you read it at the right time in your life? For me, this was that book. At the time of reading it, I've been laid up for 6 weeks after ankle surgery which has given me more than enough time to think about what sort of direction I want for 2018. As someone that's always enjoyed time alone but makes a living from the internet, finding silence within noise is something that's important to me...and I've never read a better approach on the matter than this book. My children have no real experience of that. Between a great abundance of stuff, of toys and books and magazines, and the constant digital delights from their iPads and streaming TV, boredom doesn’t exist in quite the same way. An eloquent and persuasive argument for the significance of silence, in all of its forms, from an author who has explored the limits of the human experience. When you’ve invested a lot of time in being accessible and keeping up with what’s happening, it’s easy to conclude that it all has a certain value, even if what you have done might not be important. This is called rationalization. The New York Review of Books labeled the battle between producers of apps “the new opium wars,” and the paper claims that “marketers have adopted addiction as an explicit commercial strategy.” The only difference is that the pushers aren’t peddling a product that can be smoked in a pipe, but rather is ingested via sugar-coated apps. Behind a cacophony of traffic noise, iPhone alerts and our ever-spinning thoughts, an elusive notion - silence - lies in wait. But what really is silence? Where can it be found? And why is it more important now than ever?

That same evening, I went to a pub with a few of them. Inside the draughty entrance, each of us with a pint of beer, it was all more or less exactly the same as my student days. Kind, curious people, a humming atmosphere, interesting conversations. As an explorer Erling Kagge is world class; as a writer he is equally gifted. This breathtaking, inspiring little book teaches us how to find precious moments of silence - whether we are crossing the Antarctic, climbing Everest, or on the train at rush hour' Sir Ranulph Fiennes Silence : In the Age of Noise หรือฉบับแปลภาษาไทยในชื่อ ‘เงียบ’ ของสำนักพิมพ์ OMG books ฉันยกมือสมัครใจเป็นลูกค้าทันที Erling Kagge is quite an impressive man. He was the first person in the world to walk alone to the South Pole. He was also the first to surmount the "three poles" – North, South and the summit of Mount Everest. He’s the founder of a publishing house and a well-respected author. I was thrilled to read what he had to say about the value of silence in our noisy world. It is easy to assume that the essence of technology is technology itself, but that is wrong. The essence is you and me. It’s about how we are altered by the technology we employ, what we hope to learn, our relationship with nature, those we love, the time we spend, the energy that is consumed and how much freedome we relinquish to technology.First of all: yeah, I bet. Fun dinner table convo. Second: Kagge tries to use this story to make a point about the evils of technology, but isn't the actual takeaway here that technology is AMAZING and allowed a DYING MAN TO NAME HIS CHILD ON THE PHONE WITH HIS WIFE FROM MOUNT EVEREST? Dude. There are about 10,000 anecdotes one could use to prove the perils of tech, and you're going with this? What is silence? Where is it? Why is it more important now than ever?” were three questions they wanted answered.

As an explorer Erling Kagge is world class; as a writer he is equally gifted. This breathtaking, inspiring little book teaches us how to find precious moments of silence - whether we are crossing the Antarctic, climbing Everest, or on the train at rush hour' - Sir Ranulph Fiennes

Silence braces a space within which we can hear ourselves think. Quietly, wisely, it makes a case for dumbing the din of modern life, and learning to listen again. Drawing on the experiences of Kagge's extraordinary life in wild places, this is a book of great concentration' - Robert Macfarlane It is easy to assume that the essence of technology is technology itself, but that is wrong. The essence is you and me. It’s about how we are altered by the technology we employ, what we hope to learn, our relationship with nature, those we love, the time we spend, the energy that is consumed, and how much freedom we relinquish to technology. Yes, it’s true what many say, that distances are eclipsed by technology, but that is a banal fact. The central issue is rather, as Heidegger pointed out, that: “nearness remains outstanding”. To achieve nearness, we must, according to Heidegger, relate to the truth, not to technology. Having tried my hand at internet dating, I am inclined to agree with Heidegger. We are going to give up our own freedom in our eagerness to use new technology, Heidegger claimed Sitting there at the dinner table, I suddenly remembered their curiosity as children. How they would wonder about what might be hiding behind a door. Their amazement as they stared at a light switch and asked me to “open the light”.

Do note that I am referring here, as Kagge and likely Pascal are, to "western" humanity, as I am aware that many eastern cultures and traditions allow for a much larger place for silence than is typically seen in the western world.) Kendimi saf bir sessizlikle dinlediğim zamanı hatırlamıyorum. Ama bu kitabın kendimi iyi hissettirdiğini biliyorum. Kısa cümlelerin, Kagge’nin içe dokunan örneklerinin bana iyi geldiğini.. Take a deep breath, and prepare to submerge yourself in Silence. Your own South Pole is out there, somewhere.The alternative is to not think anything at all. You may call this meditation, yoga, mindfulness or merely common sense. It can be good. I take pleasure in meditating and practising yoga. I’ve also taken up the cousin to this practice – hypnosis – and hypnotised myself for 20 minutes to disconnect. That also works well. I lie there hovering a couple of centimetres above my bed each afternoon. Kagge is an explorer and entrepreneur whose worldview is close to 180 degrees away from my own. He seems earnest, but entirely humorless and enraptured by rich people problems. He also, in my mind, has never met an anecdote from which he can't draw the wrong conclusion.

After a few minutes of walking, Kagge answered that it was worthwhile following trails in the forest, or somewhere similar where the trail wasn't always clear but full of roots and obstacles that required one's full attention to avoid stumbling. You'll be so occupied watching where you step, Kagge’s reasoning went, that you won't have time to think about other things.You’d expect that a book called Silence would be about, well, silence, wouldn’t you? While Silence in the age of noise certainly explores the idea of silence, it doesn’t focus on the idea in the way you might expect. This breathtaking, inspiring little book teaches us how to find precious moments of silence - whether we are crossing the Antarctic, climbing Everest, or on the train at rush hour. Brighton เมืองชายทะเลแสนสดใสทางใต้สุดของเกาะ เราปักหมุดว่าจะไปหน้าผาริมหาดชื่อดัง Seven Sisters ให้จงได้ แผ่นดินตั้งตระหง่านกับท้องทะเลเมื่ออยู่เคียงกันนั้นงดงาม และคุ้มค่าที่จะไปแม้ต้องเสียเวลาเดินทางจากในเมืองเป็นชั่วโมง Who should read it?: This is one of those books that I truly believe everyone should give a shot. It's not going to be for everyone, and some still might read it and get nothing out of it. I can't speak highly enough about it. Silence can take many shapes. To the insomniac, silence can be an enemy. While the noise of technology and the devices we surround ourselves with can keep us from sleep, quiet can also weigh heavily on an active mind. When he was young, Kagge describes a sleep disrupted by silence. “I lay there in my cot, tormented by silence,” he writes. “It was like having a nightmare and being awake at the same time.”