QDX Archives - Duckworth Books

Encounterism

Encounterism is a joyous immersion into the everyday pleasure and shared humanity we stand to lose in an increasingly digital world. Andy Field explores both different kinds of and different venues for human encounters: from the hairdresser’s to the cinema, from nightclubs to eateries, shops staffed by people and free-form urban parks; these are the everyday yet invaluable spaces that allow for human encounters that enrich our lives.

Field writes with tenderness and wit born out of twenty years as a performance artist creating scenarios in which people are encouraged to see and interact with each other afresh. In Encounterism he not only examines how we physically encounter both strangers and friends – in all our human grace and awkwardness – but builds to a manifesto for the importance of real-world interaction.

A rousing reminder that our cities, our residential streets and workplaces, must still allow for the possibility of spontaneity and shared, in-person joy.

A Book of Your Own

Drawing on the author’s decades of experience as a psychologist, trainer and advocate for women, this small but perfectly formed, pocket-sized book contains bite-sized snippets of insight and inspiration on communication, relationships, work, body image, overwhelm, emotional trials and more.

Pop it in your bag or nightstand and draw on it to boost your self-belief, awareness, energy and assertiveness each day – or gift it to friends and family to help them confront life’s everyday challenges.

The Importance of Living

A tremendous bestseller when it was first published in 1937, The Importance of Living has been a classic for over sixty years. Intended as an antidote to the dizzying pace of the modern world, Lin Yutang’s prescription is the classic distillation of ancient Chinese wisdom: revere inaction as much as action, invoke humour to maintain a healthy attitude, and never forget that there will always be plenty of fools around who are willing – indeed eager – to be busy, to make themselves useful, and to exercise power while you bask in the simple joy of existence.

Now, more than six decades later, with our lives accelerated to unbelievable levels, this wise and timeless book is more pertinent than ever before. In an era when we’re overwhelmed with wake-up calls, it’s an entertaining innovation to savour life’s beauty, its endless fascination and its slow, sure, simple pleasures.

Atheist’s Bible

Ernest Hemingway famously wrote ‘all thinking men are atheists’. But is this true? In The Atheist’s Bible you’ll find find quips, quotes and questions from a distinguished assortment of geniuses and jokers.

Includes reflections from: Woody Allen, Samuel Beckett, Albert Camus, Fidel Castro, Noam Chomsky, Umberto Eco, Albert Einstein, Aldous Huxley, Friedrich Nietzsche, Salman Rushdie, Bertrand Russell, Kurt Vonnegut and so many more.

The perfect gift for all non-believers.

High Definition

In recent years, microdosing has gone mainstream as burnt-out parents and workers navigate stress and fatigue. In an inversion of the hippie dream, psychedelics are increasingly being used to stabilise a consumerist system in crisis. Yet personal testimony and scientific research suggest that these apparent stabilisers could instead be a source of transformation, unlocking greater energy, creativity, wellbeing and connection to our surroundings. The tidal wave of antidepressants has failed to heal us – could psychedelics fill the gap and more?

Brilliantly marshalling original analysis and expert insights, High Definition explores practices and applications, the legislative and corporate picture, and the powerful emancipatory potential of these substances, probing how the psychedelic renaissance could be not merely a barometer of social change, but a catalyst for it.

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