Description
Book SynopsisUsually when we’re bored, we try to distract ourselves. But soon enough, boredom returns. James Danckert and John Eastwood argue that we can learn to handle boredom more effectively by recognizing what research shows: boredom indicates unmet psychological needs. Boredom, therefore, can motivate us to change what isn’t working in our lives.
Trade ReviewBoredom is often inescapable these days, as social distancing guidelines keep many of us at home…[This] is an engaging and timely read that is anything but boring. -- Erin Westgate * Science *
Offers an essential insight. Readers will leave with a greater understanding of what boredom is and what we can do with it. More than anything, it explains why boredom is something we shouldn’t fight so much as listen to. -- Eric Cortellessa * Washington Monthly *
Danckert and Eastwood urge us to resist the temptation to ‘just kick back on the couch with a bag of chips’ and instead to find activities that impart a sense of agency and reorient us toward our goals. -- Margaret Talbot * New Yorker *
Boredom bothers nearly everyone, but who likes admitting that? Take heart: James Danckert and John Eastwood demonstrate how boredom, though unpleasant, can spur us into productive action.
Out of My Skull just might make you feel better about this very human failing—I know it did for me. -- Peter Toohey, author of
Boredom: A Lively HistoryProvocative and timely, cheeky and erudite, this book will bore no one. -- Colin Ellard, author of
Places of the Heart: The Psychogeography of Everyday LifeFew have done as much as James Danckert and John Eastwood to bring boredom out of the scientific shadows and inspire researchers to give it the consideration it deserves.
Out of My Skull is a gift for the rest of us—accessible, engaging, and enlightening. -- Mark Fenske, coauthor of
The Winner's Brain: 8 Strategies Great Minds Use to Achieve SuccessAn inspiring look at the nature of boredom—what causes it, how we deal with it, and how it impacts our lives. Danckert and Eastwood explore some of the most pressing problems of our time, including solitary confinement, delinquency, internet addiction, and war, challenging us to consider what boredom can tell us about our world and ourselves. -- Heather Lench, editor of
The Function of Emotions: When and Why Emotions Help UsOut of My Skull is a highly entertaining, compelling, and thought-provoking read on the subject of boredom. I learned a lot, and so will you. -- Joshua Coleman, author of
When Parents Hurt: Compassionate Strategies When You and Your Grown Child Don’t Get AlongOffers a concise and actually quite stimulating history of boredom. -- Michael Odell * The Times *
[A] highly interesting and suggestive book on the analysis of boredom from a strictly psychological perspective. -- Steven Poole * The Guardian *
[A] fascinating book…An extended meditation on boredom as feeling and motive, as source of misery and meaning in life, as social pathology and technological predicament…An enjoyable and enlightening read that explores the many dimensions of boredom deftly but deeply. -- Nick Haslam * Inside Story *
Explore[s] what boredom really is and, crucially, whether it might serve a purpose. * Idler *
The book could not be more timely. -- Susie Mesure * inews *
