On Browsing

De: Jason Guriel

Narrado por: Tom Lute

A defense of the dying art of losing an afternoon—and gaining new appreciation—amidst the bins and shelves of bricks-and-mortar shops.

Written during the pandemic, when the world was marooned at home and consigned to scrolling screens, On Browsing’s essays chronicle what we’ve lost through online shopping, streaming, and the relentless digitization of culture. The latest in the Field Notes series, On Browsing is an elegy for physical media, a polemic in defense of perusing the world in person, and a love letter to the dying practice of scanning bookshelves, combing CD bins, and losing yourself in the stacks.

©2022 Jason Guriel (P)2023 Field Notes

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Jason Guriel’s On Browsing offers a personal 'browser history' that reveals the author as much as it elegizes the habit of sifting through physical copies of music, books, and movies.”—Literary Review of Canada

“Browsing is many things: a lifestyle, a relaxation, a revelation if your search finds a long-sought book or a rare recording, and perhaps more importantly a soul-refreshing excursion in a world of instant online search-and-buy options.”—Winnipeg Free Press

“A mall parking lot, a defunct record store, the lingering crease on a book cover—across the all-flattening boundary of the digital age, Guriel recalls what it meant to access the universal one particular, physical piece at a time.”—Tom Scocca, author of Beijing Welcomes You: Unveiling the Capital City of the Future