The World Beyond Your Head: How to Flourish in an Age of Distraction - Tapa dura

An enormously rich book, a timely and important reflection on an increasingly important subject. Pay attention.

In this brilliant follow-up to The Case for Working with Your Hands, the widely-acclaimed thinker Matthew Crawford investigates the challenge of mastering one's own mind. With ever-increasing demands on our attention, how do we focus on what's really important in our lives?

Exploring the intense focus of ice-hockey players, the zoned-out behaviour of gambling addicts, and the inherited craft of building pipe organs, Crawford argues that our current crisis of attention is the result of long-held assumptions in Western culture and that in order to flourish, we need to establish meaningful connections with the world, the people around us and the historical moment we live in.