There is a very interesting conversation to be had about the ideas in Bill’s new book New Slow City: Living Simply in the World’s Fastest City.
Free Event: Book talk with William Powers
Date/Time: Saturday, October 3, 2015 at pm
Location: Skylight Books, 1818 No. Vermont, LA 90027
No reservations required.
Bill’s last book, Twelve by Twelve, blossomed into a national “green living” bestseller now in its fifth printing.
OVERVIEW of New Slow City:
Burned-out after years of doing development and conservation work around the world, William Powers spent a season in a 12-foot-by-12-foot cabin off the grid in North Carolina. Could he live a similarly minimalist way in the belly of the go-go beast — New York City? To find out, Powers and his wife jettisoned 80 percent of their stuff, left their 2,000-square-foot Queens townhouse, and moved into a 350-square-foot “micro apartment” in Greenwich Village. Downshifting to a 20-hour workweek, Powers explores the viability of Slow Food and Slow Money, technology fasts and urban sanctuaries, rooftop gardening and beekeeping. Discovering a colorful cast of New Yorkers attempting to resist the culture of Total Work, Powers offers an inspiring exploration for anyone trying to make urban life more people- and planet-friendly.
You can read more about Bill, his bio and previous books, here.
ENDORSEMENTS of New Slow City:
“All of us sense that we could live better, kinder lives. But Bill Powers has the courage to try to change and then — ever so artfully, without the slightest wag of a finger — to show us how.” — Colin Beavan, author of No Impact Man
“Bill Powers has done it again — taken us on an honest, touching journey into living lightly and intelligently in a distracted world. And he’s such a good writer that we don’t even know we are being educated, challenged, and changed.”
— Vicki Robin, co-author of the international bestseller Your Money or Your Life and author of Blessing the Hands That Feed Us
“The reenchantment of urban life — so compromised by the accelerated techno-industrial culture — takes work, and William Powers saves us a lot of time on the learning curve. Hats off, especially to his courage.”
— Douglas Tompkins, founder of the North Face clothing company and the Foundation for Deep Ecology
“Empowered by his experiences, [Powers] gives readers an inside view into a more contemplative, ecofriendly life, no matter the environment. This honest, engaging memoir will please readers looking for inspiration to slow down.” — Library Journal
“In the City That Never Sleeps, in a place whose very definition of success is ‘bigger, better, faster,’ Powers attempts to lead a more deliberate life, to paraphrase Thoreau….Will his time spent off the grid in rural North Carolina prepare him for downsizing to a 340-square-foot micro apartment in the heart of Manhattan? With his new bride? Who soon becomes pregnant? Analyzing what it means to ‘want what we want,’ Powers turns his ecologically contemplative gaze both inward and outward, to matters both personal and global, to reconnect with those increasingly rare pockets of peace, tranquility, and mindfulness that will allow him to appreciate life at a slower pace and from a simpler vantage point. One need not live in a city to savor Powers’ languid, albeit unconventional, advocacy for an unhurried pace.” — Booklist
“Is it possible to live an earth-friendly and spiritually fulfilling life in the middle of the bustle of a big city? William Powers and his wife are the perfect people to find out. I found that the tales of the remarkable people they meet, the challenges they confront, and the beauty and joy they discover nourished a part of my soul that rarely gets fed. Never preachy, always entertaining, and often wise, this is a splendid book for anyone wanting to bring more heart and joy to urban living.”
— John Robbins, author of Diet for a New America
“New Slow City tells an inspiring story. At the outset, Powers’s goal — to live slowly and mindfully in frantic Manhattan — seems quixotic in the extreme. But one should never underestimate a determined idealist. This delightfully provocative book will speak to anyone trying to build a balanced life in our crazy world. I first came to know Powers’s work because we coincidentally share the same name. Now I read him to question my own assumptions and reimagine how to live.”
— William Powers, New York Times–bestselling author of Hamlet’s BlackBerry