How to Be Bored by Eva Hoffman

How to Be Bored by Eva Hoffman

In the latest installment of the acclaimed School of Life series, learn how to make peace with your down time--and even benefit from it.

Lethargic inactivity can be debilitating and depressing, but in the modern world the pendulum has swung far in the other direction. We live in a hyperactive, over-stimulated age. Uninterrupted activity can seem exciting, but it can also leave us emotionally disorientated and mentally depleted. How can we recover a sense of balance and a richness in our lives?

In How to Be Bored, Eva Hoffman argues for the need to cultivate curiosity and self-knowledge and to relish moments of unplugged idleness and non-virtual contact with others. Drawing on psychoanalysis, neuroscience, and a wide range of literature, she emphasizes the need to understand our own preferences and purposes and to replenish our inner resources. This book aims to make readers more vigorously engaged in their lives and to restore a sense of depth and meaning to their experiences.

Eva Hoffman was born in Cracow, Poland, and moved to Canada with her family when she was thirteen years old. She is the author of three nonfiction works, Lost in Translation, Exit into History, and Shtetl, as well as one novel, The Secret. She splits her time between London and Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she works as a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.