On Looking

ON LOOKING begins with inattention. It's not meant to help you focus on your reading of Tolstoy, it's not about how to multitask. Rather, it's about attending to the joys of the unattended, the perceived ordinary. Horowitz encourages us to rediscover the extraordinary things that we are missing in our ordinary activities. Even when engaged in the simplest of activities we pay so little attention that we are sleepwalkers in our own lives. Turn off the phone and portable electronics and get into the real world, where you'll find there are worlds within worlds within worlds.