On Looking

Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes

By: Alexandra Horowitz

Narrated by: Alexandra Horowitz

Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

Mind openning if you take it slow

You may want to listen to this book a few times to really "get it". There is no big moment in the narration, just continual examples of the details that we miss because we only see what we expect to see. The narrator is enjoyable.

What a Way with Words

I enjoyed every one of her 11 walks and will take my next walk with new eyes (and ears)

Detailed look at new ways to look at things

This is a book about how to observe things you might not observe, and treats the subject with an academic regard that is easy to follow and easy to get into, but also fascinating because she gets experts in different fields to point out the things their very trained eyes and ears notice that people who aren't trained would never see, or couldn't identify correctly. I highly recommend it, you'll undoubtedly learn something.

Excellent!!

Excellent!
Interesting! Well read! A great enjoyment and addition to my own walks and long drives!

stiff writing and narration, but thought provoking

this book truly is a fantastic idea, and the array of perspectives are contagious. these are topics I adore, and while Alexandra is certainly very observant and intelligent, but I wish she would have exchanged some of her vocabulary for more creative license. I hope she continues to write more and develop a voice that reads and sounds as good as the landscapes she puts herself into..

this was my first audible listen.

this was a really enjoyable first listen. wish in had downloaded sooner! I loved it!

Your daily walk will never be the same!

Loved this book so much. listened to it on a few of my daily walks and it was like being gifted with new eyes. always be curious of others perspectives!

Should have listened to the introduction

I rarely post reviews. this book had a lot of potential, and at times there were sparks of intrigue, but the narration was a bore. kudos to the author who stepped up to cover the audio version here, but it was painfully monotone. it did not engage me how I thought it would because the colorful prose posed actually as a barrier to the moments of research rather than just observation. the premise is an interesting concept I just think some lime could have been injected.

This is a truly walk changing book.

I spend a lot of time walking and this book has shifted my perspective and perception in wonderful ways.

Fascinating

Love the variety of sciences and opinions, the education, and the reminder of all the change that different people can bring into your life.