During public talks, multidisciplinary artist Jenny Odell stresses that How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy isn't a self-help book designed to make you put down your phone so you can be more productive at work later on. It's not a book about becoming a monk who stares at a silver bowl in a cave all day, either. But she does look at how social media and tech have changed our notion of "productivity" and then offers a pretty compelling way out of the crass and alienating life such a notion engenders. Along the way, she presents tons of fascinating found objects, academic research, amateur birding, journalism, and personal stories that make the book feel like a textual cabinet of curiosities. by Rich Smith