Snooze

by Michael McGirr

Overview

Michael McGirr always had trouble sleeping. The arrival of baby twins, however, made him realize that he’d never before known true exhaustion. And while he celebrated these small children who brought him so much joy and tiredness, he found himself on a desperate and bone-weary journey in search of just a few extra winks a night. It was an adventure that would teach him more about what exactly sleep is, why we need it, and what it means when we don’t get enough of it.In Snooze, McGirr delves into the mysterious world of sleep, including its many benefits, its stubborn elusiveness, and exactly what our brains really get up to while we’re in bed. He offers readers a tour through the odd sleep patterns of some of history's greatest minds, including Aristotle, Homer, Shakespeare, Florence Nightingale, Thomas Edison, and more. He looks, too, at the demise of sleep in our increasingly fragmented modern world—and examines what that means for everyone from the Average Joe in the workplace to those with serious sleep disorders.The result is both entertaining and enlightening—the perfect book for those sleepless nights.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681774794
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	06/06/2017
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	22 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Michael McGirr is an essayist, reviewer, prize-winning short-story writer and teacher. A former Jesuit priest, he is also the author of Things You Get For Free and Bypass: The Story of a Road. He lives in Melbourne with his wife, Jenny, and their three rapidly growing children.

Editorial Reviews

A former Jesuit priest whose high-decibel snoring caused his colleagues no small amount of torment…McGirr pursues his chosen subject in a Jesuitical spirit of holistic inquiry, contemplating sleep as it has been considered in literature, science, history and his own experience…Snooze is no snooze, and in its best moments is a reflection of its author's evident intellect and charm.

The New York Times Book Review - David Kamp

"A playful and alerting rumination on all that’s restive from caffeine to kids. But here also is a book of philosophy, history, science, child rearing and good, old-fashioned devilry that is as subversively light and witty in tone as it is weighty in its impact and wisdom. It will keep you reading deep into the night — but without a single yawn."

Jim Crace

"The perfect book to take on a sleep retreat. That’s in no way a suggestion that McGirr's tender memoir will bore you to snores. It's as entertaining as it is informative."

Sydney Morning Herald

"A thoughtful tour through the still dimly understood state of being asleep. Snooze is no snooze. A reflection of its author’s evident intellect and charm."

The New York Times Book Review

"A shrewd and warm deliberation on a fascinating and underappreciated topic. McGirr’s is a wise and friendly voice, often funny, self-deprecating and tongue-in-cheek, and his exploration of many differing attitudes is refreshingly non-judgmental."

The Age

"Examines the way shut-eye—or lack of it—affects us on and off the pillow. If you’re among the flock who counts sheep most nights, these pages reassure. As McGirr notes, ‘Insomnia is nothing to lose sleep over.’"

O Magazine

"A delightful eye-opener. Its blend of memoir, science history, mythological lore and cultural commentary is a constant delight."

Seattle Times

"A dynamic, multifaceted book that serves as an entertaining, philosophical lullaby for the deprived."

Shelf Awareness

"With Snooze, Michael McGirr has, pardon the pun, produced a wake-up call about the fascinating yet little known history and science of sleep. A delightful read, Snooze takes on the one activity we spend the most time doing, yet still manages to surprise. It’s one bedtime read that won’t put you to sleep."

Edward Humes

"In urbane and graceful prose, McGirr successfully integrates autobiography, literary criticism, historical anecdote, popular science, low-key theology, and lucid social commentary. His gentle wisdom, born of broad life experience, imbues every sentence."

The Australian

05/15/2017
Inspired by the sleeplessness that ensued after the birth of his twins, McGirr (Things You Get for Free), a writer and former priest, presents a thoughtful series of meditations on the many aspects of sleep. Divided into brief chapters ("8:45 PM"; "Midnight"), this book covers a wide scope of science, literature, and history, tackling the theme of slumber in fairy tales and ancient myths, the writings of William Shakespeare and Jonathan Swift, and The One Thousand and One Nights. McGirr describes how Thomas Edison's light bulbs and Florence Nightingale's hospital beds changed how we rest, examines how sleepiness and wakefulness affect human relationships, explores dreams and disorders, and, as a sufferer of insomnia and sleep apnea, discusses his own treatment and science's search for a good night's sleep. As soothing as it is shifting, the narrative moves easily among writers, world leaders, and doctors and patients sharing stories of dreams and lost hours. VERDICT A pleasantly mindful work for general readers who enjoy science as well as anyone seeking that elusive satisfying night's slumber.—Catherine Lantz, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago Lib.

Library Journal

2017-04-18
An eyes-wide-open look at the penumbral world of sleep, where we spend so much of our time without quite knowing why."We inhabit a culture that keeps people on the brink of falling asleep and yet inhibits them from doing it properly," writes McGirr (Things You Get for Free, 2012, etc.), an Australian writer and former Jesuit priest who describes instances of tipping over that brink in the classroom, congregation, and nearly every other place where beleaguered people try to grab a few winks. Blame it on Thomas Edison, who worked 18 hours per day, enjoyed no social life to speak of, and led "a gang of assassins" who "murdered sleep" with his infernal electric lightbulb. However, as the author notes, we had been trying to extract light from darkness long before. In a lively though sometimes too centrifugal cultural history, he explores key moments, venturing the wise observation that "The Odyssey is a book about getting home to bed" and working in personal aperçus redolent of Proustian sentiment: "When I was a child, I often found myself unable to sleep." If the overarching subject of the book is sleep, its villains are the agents of sleeplessness and irregular sleep: insomnia, nightmares, narcolepsy. On all of these points, McGirr has something interesting to say, and he observes that narcolepsy, though a shadowy ailment, still affects about as many people as Parkinson's disease and, thus, is more common than we might suspect. Being a sometime Jesuit, the author fits theology into the discussion without much fanfare: "God is a creature of the night" who was content to create darkness first and only later thought to illuminate the scene. And speaking of God, Keith Richards has some catching up to do: though well-known for his three- and four-day bouts of going without sleep, the record-holder, in 1965, went a staggering 11 days without it. A good book to curl up with while pondering the mysteries of Morpheus.

Kirkus Reviews