Hold On

Much of our waking life, outside sleep and meals, is spent in suspense: for a deadline to pass, the commute to end, or a call from the doctor's office. This book treats waiting as an experience worth examining in its own right, not only as something to get through. Its scope is broad, taking in hesitation and procrastination, hunting and being hunted, dread and anticipation, courtship and parenting, music, religious life, boredom, and even the experience of being a bore.

The author also looks at the brain chemistry behind waiting, particularly serotonin and dopamine, and how these chemicals can warp our sense of time's passing. Waiting, he suggests, runs through nearly every relationship we have, so handling it badly carries real consequences. Practical advice on coping with waiting and living more fully with it is included, but the main purpose is to show how much waiting has mattered in popular and elite culture and, at times, in history.

The book moves through psychology, neurology, ethology, philosophy, film and literature, and above all art, bringing the subject into view from unexpected angles. Readers may finish it seeing the ordinary pause in their day in a new light.