This is one of my favorite reads this year and I cannot thank the publisher enough for giving me an advanced readers copy. Tom Lutz's writing was mesmerizing, as if I was hearing someone talk. His thoughts flowed so well together and I could see the individual points as well as the collage that he built in this work. Lutz's ideas are so distinct and yet form a brilliant picture together. His analysis of the concept of aimlessness, how it manifests in poetry, essays, novels, death, love and how everything builds a collage with so much room for interpretation... I'm blown away by these concepts and this outlook! All I want to do is to learn more.

A full review of the book and the thoughts I had as I read will be published in Armed with A Book on publication date.

When I hear that something or someone is aimless, I have an instant negative reaction to that person or thing. Our society, in championing productivity and efficiency, has decreed that the opposite thing, aimlessness, is evil and must be stamped out. Lutz does a great job dispelling the myths around Aimlessness in his book.

The tying of each chapter's theme to a book or other pop culture is a great tactic. The ideas here are sometimes quite abstract, so linking them to the familiar helps ground the reader and illustrate what Lutz is actually saying. I loved the examples Lutz gave of himself reading encyclopedias. As a boy, I too read encyclopedias and almanacs without any real questions in mind to answer. It was seeking knowledge just for the sake of doing it. This is a practice we've lost in today's society, where we're expected to do everything for a stated and concrete purpose.

This is a very good academic volume on a subject that isn't given much attention. I would recommend reading it.