NO TIME TO SPARE
Thinking About What Matters
Ursula K. Le Guin on the absurdity of denying your age: “If I’m ninety and believe I’m forty-five, I’m headed for a very bad time trying to get out of the bathtub.”
On cultural perceptions of fantasy: “The direction of escape is toward freedom. So what is ‘escapism’ an accusation of?”
On breakfast: “Eating an egg from the shell takes not only practice, but resolution, even courage, possibly willingness to commit crime.”
Ursula K. Le Guin has taken readers to imaginary worlds for decades. Now she’s in the last great frontier of life,
Ursula K. Le Guin on the absurdity of denying your age: “If I’m ninety and believe I’m forty-five, I’m headed for a very bad time trying to get out of the bathtub.”
On cultural perceptions of fantasy: “The direction of escape is toward freedom. So what is ‘escapism’ an accusation of?”
On breakfast: “Eating an egg from the shell takes not only practice, but resolution, even courage, possibly willingness to commit crime.”
Ursula K. Le Guin has taken readers to imaginary worlds for decades. Now she’s in the last great frontier of life, old age, and exploring new literary territory: the blog, a forum where her voice—sharp, witty, as compassionate as it is critical—shines. No Time to Spare collects the best of Ursula’s online writing, presenting perfectly crystallized dispatches on what matters to her now, her concerns with this world, and her unceasing wonder at it: “How rich we are in knowledge, and in all that lies around us yet to learn. Billionaires, all of us.”
- Mariner Books
- Paperback
- January 2019
- 240 Pages
- 9781328507976
Buy the Book
$14.99
About Ursula K. Le Guin
URSULA K. LE GUIN was born in Berkeley, California, in 1929, and passed away in Portland, Oregon, in 2018. She published over sixty books of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, children’s literature, and translation. She was the recipient of a National Book Award, six Hugo and five Nebula awards, and was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Praise
Longlisted for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay
A TimeOut Book to Cozy Up to This December
A Real Simple Best Book to Read in December
A Book Riot Must-Read Book for December
“The pages sparkle with lines that make a reader glance up, searching for an available ear with which to share them.” — Melissa Febos, New York Times Book Review
“Spirited, wry reflections on aging, literature, and America’s moral life . . . An entertaining collection . . . Thoughtful musings from a deft and sharply insightful writer.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Le Guin’s new book, No Time To Spare…feels like the surprising and satisfying culmination to a career in other literary forms…Even in the familiar relationship of an old woman and her cat, Le Guin finds an ambit for challenging moral insight and matter for an inquisitiveness that probes the deep time of evolution…Blogs may not be novels, but a blog by Le Guin is no ordinary blog, either. It is a comfort to know, as reality seems to grow more claustrophobic and inescapable, that she remains at her desk, busily subverting our world.”—The New Republic
“Le Guin is a natural storyteller, and these snippets from her life are inarguably delightful. She is certainly a lioness in winter here, as focused as she has ever been on the things that matter most to her. Old age is not for the young, she posits—and it is a slogan not intended as complaint, but rallying cry. Spend a little time with octogenarian Ursula K. Le Guin, and the prospect of growing old becomes a bit less daunting.”—BookPage
“To Le Guin…what truly matters are the words she thinks about, rigorous in her examination. Her expression of these thoughts reads more like mini-essays than blog posts and invite close reading, which always reaps rich rewards, the true gift of this lovely book.”—Booklist
“No Time to Spare presents the best of Le Guin’s blog: sharp-eyed, big-hearted, idiosyncratic and highly enjoyable . . . Both Le Guin’s eye for detail and her dry wit are on full display here . . . Readers will find much to think about in this wise and eloquent collection.” —Shelf Awareness
“Short, punchy, and canny meditations on aging, literature, and cats . . . [Le Guin] offers her many fans a chance to share her clear-eyed experience of the everyday.” —Publishers Weekly