OverDrive would like to use cookies to store information on your computer to improve your user experience at our Website. One of the cookies we use is critical for certain aspects of the site to operate and has already been set. You may delete and block all cookies from this site, but this could affect certain features or services of the site. To find out more about the cookies we use and how to delete them, click here to see our Privacy Policy.
From acclaimed author Ursula K. Le Guin, a collection of thoughts—always adroit, often acerbic—on aging, belief, the state of literature, and the state of the nation. Ursula K. Le Guin on the absurdity of denying your age: "If I'm ninety and believe I'm forty-five, I'm headed for a very bad time trying to get out of the bathtub." On cultural perceptions of fantasy: "The direction of escape is toward freedom. So what is 'escapism' an accusation of?" On breakfast: "Eating an egg from the shell takes not only practice, but resolution, even courage, possibly willingness to commit crime." Ursula K. Le Guin took readers to imaginary worlds for decades. In the last great frontier of life, old age, she explored a new literary territory: the blog, a forum where she shined. The collected best of Ursula's blog, No Time to Spare presents perfectly crystallized dispatches on what mattered to her late in life, her concerns with the world, and her wonder at it: "How rich we are in knowledge, and in all that lies around us yet to learn. Billionaires, all of us." "The pages sparkle with lines that make a reader glance up, searching for an available ear with which to share them." — Melissa Febos, New York Times Book Review "Witty . . . deeply observed." — USA Today "A book that truly does matter." — Houston Chronicle
From acclaimed author Ursula K. Le Guin, a collection of thoughts—always adroit, often acerbic—on aging, belief, the state of literature, and the state of the nation. Ursula K. Le Guin on the absurdity of denying your age: "If I'm ninety and believe I'm forty-five, I'm headed for a very bad time trying to get out of the bathtub." On cultural perceptions of fantasy: "The direction of escape is toward freedom. So what is 'escapism' an accusation of?" On breakfast: "Eating an egg from the shell takes not only practice, but resolution, even courage, possibly willingness to commit crime." Ursula K. Le Guin took readers to imaginary worlds for decades. In the last great frontier of life, old age, she explored a new literary territory: the blog, a forum where she shined. The collected best of Ursula's blog, No Time to Spare presents perfectly crystallized dispatches on what mattered to her late in life, her concerns with the world, and her wonder at it: "How rich we are in knowledge, and in all that lies around us yet to learn. Billionaires, all of us." "The pages sparkle with lines that make a reader glance up, searching for an available ear with which to share them." — Melissa Febos, New York Times Book Review "Witty . . . deeply observed." — USA Today "A book that truly does matter." — Houston Chronicle
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
URSULA K. LE GUIN was born in Berkeley, California, in 1929, and passed away in Portland, Oregon, in 2018. She published over sixty books of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, children's literature, and translation. She was the recipient of a National Book Award, six Hugo and five Nebula awards, and was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Reviews-
July 1, 2017
A legendary writer with a National Book Award, five Hugo Awards, and five Nebula Awards to her name, Le Guin here collects the best essays from her blog, a new medium for her that fits her pointedly glistening writing. In particular, she addresses the frontier of old age, both its hardships ("If I'm ninety and believe I'm forty-five, I'm headed for a very bad time trying to get out of the bathtub") and rewards ("How rich we are in knowledge, and in all that lies around us yet to learn. Billionaires, all of us"). With a 30,000-copy first printing.
Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
August 14, 2017 Fantasy and SF author Le Guin (The Lost and the Found) mines her blog in these short, punchy, and canny meditations on aging, literature, and cats. Prompted by an alumni survey from her alma mater, Radcliffe, that asks how she occupies her spare time, she takes issue with the idea that any time occupied by living—whether that means reading, writing, cooking, eating, cleaning, etc.—can be considered spare. Moreover, with her 81st birthday fast approaching, Le Guin declares, ”I have no time to spare.” One of the most personal pieces lovingly describes Le Guin’s adoption of a kitten from the local Humane Society, describing how the “vivid little creature” eventually settled in the house and became her “pard” (partner.) On literary topics, Le Guin contests the preoccupation with finding the next Great American Novel—“We have all the great novels we need and right now some man or woman is writing a new one we won’t know we needed till we read it”—and responds to a reader’s question about the meaning of one of her books by responding that its meaning is up to the reader. In a prescient 2012 essay on lying and politics, she wonders whether America can “go on living on spin and illusion, hot air and hogwash, and still be my country.” Le Guin reveals no startling insights but offers her many fans a chance to share her clear-eyed experience of the everyday. Agent: Ginger Clark, Curtis Brown.
September 15, 2017 Spirited, wry reflections on aging, literature, and America's moral life.Inspired by blogs that Jose Saramago wrote when he was in his 80s, the prolific, multiple award-winning Le Guin (Words Are My Matter: Writing About Life and Books, 2000-2015, with a Journal of a Writer's Week, 2016, etc.) became a blogger herself. In an entertaining collection of more than 40 posts written from 2010 to 2015, she offers opinions on a wide range of topics: politics, age and youth, confounding questions from readers, creativity, public and private expressions of anger, a splendid opera by Philip Glass, the serene ritual of breakfast in Vienna, and, most charmingly, her cat. The collection begins with the author's mystification over a questionnaire from Harvard, on the occasion of the 60th reunion of the graduating class of 1951. One question "really got me down," she confesses: "In your spare time, what do you do?" There followed a list of 27 occupations, beginning with "Golf." If spare time is the opposite of occupied time, Le Guin maintains that all of her time is "occupied by living." And at the age of 81, when the piece was posted, she observed, "I have no time to spare." She is at her most acerbic when writing about politics: in 2012 she learned that in 1947, President Truman asked the nation to give up meat on Tuesdays and poultry on Thursdays so that grain could be sent to starving Europeans. Such a request would be laughable today, she reflects sadly: "When did it become impossible for our government to ask its citizens to refrain from short-term gratification in order to serve a greater good?" Even in 2012 she felt in exile: "I used to live in a country that had a future." Le Guin is at her most tender in posts about her cat, "a vivid little creature...utterly sweet and utterly nutty." Thoughtful musings from a deft and sharply insightful writer.
COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
December 1, 2017
Le Guin, whose accolades include a National Book Award and five Hugo Awards, loves libraries for all the right reasons, and libraries love her back in equal measure. Since 2010, the distinguished novelist has expanded her literary repertoire by maintaining a personal blog, much to the enjoyment of her fans. Thoughtfully selected and neatly compiled here, Le Guin's entries provide pithy musings on old age, American politics, cat ownership, and being an author, among other topics. Throughout the collection, she makes the reader smile with her acerbic wit and poignant observations. Although without an intended direction or objective, the overall intimacy of the writings put readers in the same room with Le Guin, where she repeatedly provides valuable life lessons that have been slowly amassed over time and through experience. VERDICT If you love the imaginary worlds Le Guin has taken us to over the decades, this book will make you feel more connected to the author as a person. [See Prepub Alert, 6/12/17.]--Matt Gallagher, Univ. of the Sciences, Philadelphia
Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Title Information+
Publisher
HarperCollins
OverDrive Read
Release date:
EPUB eBook
Release date:
Digital Rights Information+
Copyright Protection (DRM) required by the Publisher may be applied to this title to limit or prohibit printing or copying. File sharing or redistribution is prohibited. Your rights to access this material expire at the end of the lending period. Please see Important Notice about Copyrighted Materials for terms applicable to this content.
Please update to the latest version of the OverDrive app to stream videos.
Device Compatibility Notice
The OverDrive app is required for this format on your current device.
Bahrain, Egypt, Hong Kong, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen
You've reached your library's checkout limit for digital titles.
To make room for more checkouts, you may be able to return titles from your Checkouts page.
Excessive Checkout Limit Reached.
There have been too many titles checked out and returned by your account within a short period of time.
Try again in several days. If you are still not able to check out titles after 7 days, please contact Support.
You have already checked out this title. To access it, return to your Checkouts page.
This title is not available for your card type. If you think this is an error contact support.
There are no copies of this issue left to borrow. Please try to borrow this title again when a new issue is released.
| Sign In
You will be prompted to sign into your library account on the next page.
If this is your first time selecting “Send to NOOK,” you will then be taken to a Barnes & Noble page to sign into (or create) your NOOK account. You should only have to sign into your NOOK account once to link it to your library account. After this one-time step, periodicals will be automatically sent to your NOOK account when you select "Send to NOOK."
The first time you select “Send to NOOK,” you will be taken to a Barnes & Noble page to sign into (or create) your NOOK account. You should only have to sign into your NOOK account once to link it to your library account. After this one-time step, periodicals will be automatically sent to your NOOK account when you select "Send to NOOK."
You can read periodicals on any NOOK tablet or in the free NOOK reading app for iOS, Android or Windows 8.