Hanging Out by Sheila Liming | Black Inc.
Hanging Out

A meditation on the value of spending idle time with friends, family, and strangers. 
Kirkus Reviews

Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time

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About the author

Sheila Liming

Sheila Liming is the author of Office and What a Library Means to a Woman, and her essays have appeared in The AtlanticMcSweeney'sLapham's QuarterlyThe Los Angeles Review …

More about Sheila Liming



Praise for Hanging Out

‘More books about hanging out, less about productivity please. Sheila Liming sees the gap in our thinking about time, and the true worth in spending it in an unstructured fashion with members of our community…’ —Literary Hub

‘A meditation on the value of spending idle time with friends, family, and strangers.’ —Kirkus Reviews

‘The book conceives of hanging out as a way to reclaim time as something other than a raw ingredient to be converted into productivity.’ —The New York Times

‘Hide your phone, stop hustling for a second, and read this passionate argument for the importance of unstructured pre-digital hang.’ —People Magazine

Hanging Out is rich with illuminating stories … I passionately believed that her book was right.’ —Slate

‘We could all use more of that blissfully unstructured social time, posits Sheila Liming in the well-considered series of arguments found in Hanging Out.’ —Reader’s Digest

‘[Hanging Out] opens with a simple and expansive account of what hanging out is … Liming dedicates much of the book to stories from her past. She has lived an interesting life, and she tells these stories well’ —Washington Post

‘[Hanging Out] encourages readers to do more of it in real life … Liming’s observational and storytelling skills shine.’ —Publishers Weekly

‘From sharing a cuppa to lazing in the park, is the key to happiness doing everyday activities with pals? … Liming proposes hanging out as a balm that forges connection and meaning.’ —The Guardian UK

‘A thoughtful manifesto … Liming is unsurprisingly the most compelling when she incorporates literary criticism into her treatise.’ —BookPage

‘Like me, you will thoroughly enjoy hanging out with this book. Jam-packed with eloquent and authentic testimony, it delivers many fresh insights on experiences that we might otherwise take for granted.’ —Andrew Ross, author of Nice Work If You Can Get It: Life and Labor in Precarious Times 

‘Tightly argued, brilliantly written … smart yet so accessible, Hanging Out will impress readers with the way each idea builds on the next, never forced and always human.’ —Shelf Awareness

‘Sharp and vivid writing … [Liming's] chapter on parties is so richly drawn. It’s a layered exploration of social dynamics and contains some textured literary criticism.’ —Bookforum

‘Readers will gain a new appreciation for their next get-together after reading this fascinating book and taking the author's well-written words to heart’ —Booklist 

'I need to hang out to stay sane ... I feel we all do, so I highly recommend this book.' —Margaret Snowdon, Readings

‘Witty and astute’ —Steven Carroll, The Age ‘Non-fiction pick of the week’

‘[E]ffortlessly intelligent’ —Edwina Preston, The Conversation