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On Looking

Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes

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On Looking

By: Alexandra Horowitz
Narrated by: Alexandra Horowitz
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About this listen

From the author of the number-one New York Times mega-best seller Inside of a Dog comes an equally smart, delightful, and startling exploration of how we perceive and discover our world.

Alexandra Horowitz’s brilliant On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes shows us how to see the spectacle of the ordinary - to practice, as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle put it, "the observation of trifles". On Looking is structured around a series of eleven walks the author takes, mostly in her Manhattan neighborhood, with experts on a diverse range of subjects, including an urban sociologist, the well-known artist Maira Kalman, a geologist, a physician, and a sound designer. She also walks with a child and a dog to see the world as they perceive it. What they see, how they see it, and why most of us do not see the same things reveal the startling power of human attention and the cognitive aspects of what it means to be an expert observer.

As the million-plus readers of Inside of a Dog have discovered, Alexandra Horowitz is charmingly adept at explaining the mysteries of human perception. Trained as a cognitive scientist, she discovers a feast of fascinating detail, all explained with her generous humor and self-deprecating tone. On Looking presents the same engaging combination, this time in service to understanding how human beings encounter their daily worlds and one another.

Page by page, Horowitz shows how much more there is to see - if only we would really look. On Looking is nutrition for the considered life, serving as a provocative response to our relentlessly virtual consciousness. So turn off the phone and other electronic devices and be in the real world - where strangers communicate by geometry as they walk toward one another, where sounds reveal shadows, where posture can display humility, and the underside of a leaf unveils a Lilliputian universe - where, indeed, there are worlds within worlds within worlds.

Alexandra Horowitz’s On Looking confirms her place as one of today’s most illuminating observers of our infinitely complex world.

©2013 Alexandra Horowitz (P)2013 Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Anthropology Psychology Social Sciences Dogs Witty
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What listeners say about On Looking

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Missed opportunities

Mildly interesting but didn’t tell me much new. Would much rather have heard how other people see the city - homeless, police , graffiti artist, environmental activist etc. she is weirdly uninterested in people and doesn’t even say much about dogs!

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

I tried!

I was really keen to listen to this as I had read the author's book about understanding dogs. I had also seen this book referred to as one of the top ten books that should be read. The first three accounts of walks were interesting and then it became too samey. The author's voice is monotonous too and that doesn't help. I tried to return the book but the system wouldn't let me and said I had to ring audible customer service. As I didn't want to spend ages on the phone possibly justifying why I didn't like it , I decided to plod through to the end. And that's all it is now, a plod. I'm sorry, I tried.

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

seeing anew

fascinating,this has opened all my senses to exciting new adventures & learning new skills

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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Don't waste your time

don't waste your time it is uninteresting in almost every single way truly an impressive feat

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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I wanted to love it

I really wanted to love this book. It's the kind thing I like, I love nerdy details like geology and typography and knowing stuff about the world around me. I'm also always keen to find ways to show down and appreciate life so this book sounded brilliant and got great reviews. However, sadly it's boring, the author's voice is droning and you hear all about these fascinating people but don't get to hear FROM them or learn much. The author is too keen on rambling on with her own navel gazing to let them. Couldn't finish I'm afraid.

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