A follow up to Pico Iyer's essay 'The Joy of Quiet, ' The Art of Stillness considers the adventure of staying put and reveals a counterintuitive truth: The more ways we have to connect, the more we seem desperate to unplug. Why would a man who seems able to go everywhere and do anything -- like the international heartthrob and Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Famer Leonard Cohen -- choose to spend years sitting still and going nowhere? What can Nowhere offer that no Anywhere can match? And why might a lifelong traveler like Pico Iyer, who has journeyed from Easter Island to Ethiopia, Cuba to Kathmandu, think that sitting quietly in a room and getting to know the seasons and landscapes of Nowhere might be the ultimate adventure? In this book, Iyer draws on the lives of well-known wanderer-monks like Cohen -- as well as from his own experiences as a travel writer who chooses to spend most of his time in rural Japan -- to explore why advances in technology are making us more likely to retreat. Iyer

The Art of Stillness considers the unexpected adventure of staying put and reveals a counter-intuitive truth: The more ways people have to connect, the more they seem desperate to unplug. There is even a growing trend toward observing an 'Internet sabbath' every week, turning off online connections from Friday night to Monday morning and reviving those ancient customs known as family meals and conversation.