Saving Time

Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock

By: Jenny Odell

Narrated by: Kristen Sieh

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The visionary author of How to Do Nothing returns to challenge the notion that ‘time is money.’ . . . Expect to feel changed by this radical way of seeing.”—Esquire

“One of the most important books I’ve read in my life.”—Ed Yong, author of An Immense World

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Harper’s Bazaar, Esquire, Chicago Public Library, Electric Lit

In her first book, How to Do Nothing, Jenny Odell wrote about the importance of disconnecting from the “attention economy” to spend time in quiet contemplation. But how can we reclaim our time?

In order to answer this seemingly simple question, Odell took a deep dive into the fundamental structure of our society and found that the clock we live by was built for profit, not people. This is why our lives, even in leisure, have come to seem like a series of moments to be bought, sold, and processed ever more efficiently. Odell shows us how our painful relationship to time is inextricably connected not only to persisting social inequities but to the climate crisis, existential dread, and a lethal fatalism.

This dazzling, subversive, and deeply hopeful book offers us different ways to experience time—inspired by pre-industrial cultures, ecological cues, and geological timescales—that can bring within reach a more humane, responsive way of living. As planet-bound animals, we live inside shortening and lengthening days alongside gardens growing, birds migrating, and cliffs eroding; the stretchy quality of waiting and desire; the way the present may suddenly feel marbled with childhood memory; the slow but sure procession of a pregnancy; the time it takes to heal from injuries. Odell urges us to become stewards of these different rhythms of life in which time is not reducible to standardized units and instead forms the very medium of possibility.

Saving Time tugs at the seams of reality as we know it—the way we experience time itself—and rearranges it, imagining a world not centered on work, the office clock, or the profit motive. If we can “save” time by imagining a life, identity, and source of meaning outside these things, time might also save us.

©2023 Jenny Odell (P)2023 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“This grand, eclectic, wide-ranging work is about the various problems that swirl out from dominant conceptions of ‘time,’ which sometimes means history, sometimes means an individual lifetime and sometimes means the future”—The New York Times

“Saving Time seeks a more expansive, nonlinear view of time itself, an important endeavor. . . . A kind of compendium on time itself, one that attempts to take a less depressing and deterministic view of the climate future.”—Vanity Fair

“Odell’s follow-up to 2019’s How to Do Nothing establishes her as a leading philosopher of our age.”—Hazlitt

exactly what I needed

this was a fabulous exploration into taking back your time and feeling free of the capitalist grind. I loved this book.

An Interdisciplinary Masterpiece

Odell’s meditative tone continues to blossom in this beautifully woven tapestry of perspectives concerning our most ephemeral medium.

Pulling together stories from the world too few see

I would recommend this book to anyone willing to indulge and awaken their own senses. You will see the ordinary as anything but. You might also extend your life.

Required Reading for being human!

In Saving Time, Jenny Odell says all the quiet parts out loud about the ills of life in a capitalist, post-industrialist society. Her artful, sharp eye uncovers these truths in a way that re-attunes the reader to the beauty in marking time by being a physical presence in the world, a careful observer of our environments, the space we share with other living things.

A beautiful meditation on life

This book was a joy to listen to. The prose was so poetic, especially in the second half of the book. The author brought up so many big questions and issues and explored them in such an interesting, nuanced and inspiring way. It inspired me reexamine my ideas and assumptions about time, purpose, the present moment, the natural world, death, and ultimately, our collective experience of life.

A first-world problem, immortalized..and why not!?

There's a lot to unpack here, and I don't know where to start.

The perspective is empowering and fresh.

However:
It would be awesome if this book applied to a broader portion of the populous. There's no reason in today's world of automation for people not to live at a higher standard. There's also a fair bit of past problems still affecting the poorest/downtrodden communities (especially those of color). Gentrification, and slumlords have ensured the price of entry to the "middle class" is almost a joke of unattainability to 34%, or more, of the population in the "greatest country" on earth.

Erudite and heartfelt

This book romps through a kalediscope of topics, earnest to a fault, awesome in the depth and breadth of insight. Tends to the woke-treackly but this is one formidable writer deserving of rich praise for her (their?) super human hard work, generosity of spirit anf fluent, engaging writing. It's also fun and entertaining. I almost never review books, have listened to hundreds. This one merits the kudos.

Beautiful Framing of this World and its Current Struggles

I love Jenny Odell so much. The level headed, scientifically grounded concepts she expresses are complex, and yet take on an astounding clarity and simplicity through her artful expression of them.

I’ve heard her read her own words, and of course that would be my preference, but Kristen Sieh is also wonderful to listen to, with a voice and cadence that lend themselves well to the writing.


I have high hopes that this might help to bridge some of the gaps between my parents’ understanding of the world and my own. Will update after they read it.

Love Jenny Odell so much - narrator wasn’t my fave

I love Jenny Odell - she’s so wise and her mind is deeply intricate. This book does not disappoint. Didn’t love the narrator - they felt so neutral in terms of tonality that it didn’t feel like being read to by a real person. But love this book

Outstanding

This is a fascinating book, in which the author brings together many disciplines (including social history, the physical and life sciences, philosophy, and the arts) to reflect on the nature, practice, challenges, and possibilities of time. Beautiful writing, highly recommended!