Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time

"Hide your phone, stop hustling for a second, and read this passionate argument for the importance of unstructured pre-digital hang." --People

Loneliness is an epidemic; it feels harder than ever to connect with others meaningfully. What can we do to remedy this? Sheila Liming has the answer: we need to hang out more.

With the introduction of AI and constant Zoom meetings, our lives have become more fractured, digital and chaotic. Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time shows us what we have lost to the frenetic pace of digital life and how to get it back.

Combining personal narrative with pungent analyses of books, movies, and TV shows, Sheila Liming shows us how the new social landscape deadens our connections with others -- connections that are vital to both self-care and to a vibrant community. Whether drinking with strangers in a distant city or jamming with musician friends in an abandoned Pittsburgh row house, Liming demonstrates that unstructured social time is the key to a freer, happier sense of self.

Hanging Out shows how simple acts of casual connection are the glue that binds us together, and how community is the antidote to the disconnection and isolation that dominates contemporary life.

"The book conceives of hanging out as a way to reclaim time as something other than a raw ingredient to be converted into productivity." --New York Times

"Rich with illuminating stories." --Slate

"We could all use more of that blissfully unstructured social time, posits Sheila Liming in the well-considered series of arguments found in Hanging Out." --Reader's Digest

"Opens with a simple and expansive account of what hanging out is ... Liming dedicates much of the book to stories from her past. She has lived an interesting life, and she tells these stories well." --Washington Post

"Sharp and vivid writing ... a layered exploration of social dynamics that contains some textured literary criticism." --Bookforum

"More books about hanging out, less about productivity please. Sheila Liming sees the gap in our thinking about time, and the true worth in spending it in an unstructured fashion with members of our community." --LitHub

Publisher: Melville House Publishing
Published: 01/24/2023
Pages: 256
Weight: 0.8lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.50w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9781685890056


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 11/15/2022
Library Journal 12/01/2022 pg. 118
Booklist 12/01/2022 pg. 97
Shelf Awareness 02/03/2023
Publishers Weekly 02/20/2023
BookPage 02/01/2023

About the Author
Sheila Liming is an associate professor at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont, where she teaches classes on literature, media, and writing. She is the author of two books, What a Library Means to a Woman and Office, and the editor of a new edition of Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence. Her essays have appeared in venues like The Atlantic, McSweeney's, Lapham's Quarterly, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Public Books, and The Point.