I’ve been enjoying George Prochnik’s recent book, “In Pursuit Of Silence.” He articulates sentiments of many who live in densely noisy urban places: What is the effect of noise on our body-minds? How does silence heal? And how can we pursue the idea of silence in the midst of noise? As a frequent headphone wearer and lover of all kinds of canned, mediated, electronically-reproduced, immersive sound, the book has me thinking about what my listening habits may say about me. Prochnik’s book is not the only meditation on the noise-silence continuum. I’m curious about Garret Keizer’s “The Unwanted Sound of Everything We Want: A Book About Noise” and George Michelsen Foy’s “Zero Decibels: The Quest for Absolute Silence.” You can read NY Times reviews of all three books here: nytimes.com/2010/05/18/books/18silence.html
