“Beware the barrenness of a busy life.” Author Christina Crook reaches back 2,000 years to quote Socrates in the introduction to a book that speaks into a twenty-first century reality. In 2012, leading a very full journalist’s life with three young children and an often-travelling husband, Crook decided to go offline for a month.
She decided to leave the Internet to live 31 days with intentionality and deliberateness as she created new pathways for living and communicating with her husband and children, her neighborhood, her distant family and friends, and her ongoing career connections. Her reflections are not so much a linear story of that month as an exploration of the imbalance the wired world has created for most people.
Crook quotes a wide range of philosophers and poets, educators and researchers, weaving together a text that is accessible. She invites readers to consider the effects of living a wired life; the challenge of setting personal, family, and work boundaries; and the rewards of living into alternative choices. Included are spaces for self-reflection. This title lends itself to small group, book club, or teaching staff conversation. (New Society Publishers)
About the Author
Jenny deGroot is a freelance media review and news writer for The Banner. She lives on Swallowfield Farm near Fort Langley B.C. with her husband, Dennis. Before retirement she worked as a teacher librarian and assistant principal.
