Ode To Public Benches | Escape Into Meaning

BOOK FAQS:

*Will the book be sold internationally?* Yes, Escape Into Meaning should available for shipping to most places around the world where English-language books are sold. Amazon is your best bet, but local retailers can also order books from abroad (may just take a bit longer). I don’t have a full list of where it’s available, and I don’t control this in any way, so I’m sorry if you can’t get the hardcover where you live.

*Will the book be translated into other languages?* Escape Into Meaning is only available in English for now. Translated versions usually don’t happen unless there are significant sales. If this book gets translated, that means something went really right, but we won’t know that for some time. If there are going to be translations, I will let you know as soon as I do.

These will be the only live events I’ll be doing. I’m sorry if you don’t live near these cities — but I will be doing a livestream event that will be available for everyone. When I have the link and details for that, I will share it with you.

I will update this as more questions come in. Thanks!

ISBN 978-1-9821-6395-2

[Nerdwriter]

BOOK FAQS:

*Will the book be sold internationally?* Yes, Escape Into Meaning should available for shipping to most places around the world where English-language books are sold. Amazon is your best bet, but local retailers can also order books from abroad (may just take a bit longer). I don’t have a full list of where it’s available, and I don’t control this in any way, so I’m sorry if you can’t get the hardcover where you live.

*Will the book be translated into other languages?* Escape Into Meaning is only available in English for now. Translated versions usually don’t happen unless there are significant sales. If this book gets translated, that means something went really right, but we won’t know that for some time. If there are going to be translations, I will let you know as soon as I do.



These will be the only live events I’ll be doing. I’m sorry if you don’t live near these cities — but I will be doing a livestream event that will be available for everyone. When I have the link and details for that, I will share it with you.

I will update this as more questions come in. Thanks!

[NicheNonsense]

I get the same feeling from bike trails in rural areas. It's something that only exists to make peoples' lives better, it's purely a public good

[rhubytuesday]

As a landscape architect, this is exciting to hear being described so accurately. Its a spot on description outside the technical language generally used within the built environment and I'm so happy people like yourself have identified public benches as a crucial part of the urban realm.

[GenuineTed]

25 years ago, when I was an art school grad student, one of my instructors' favorite subjects was park benches. He travelled the US and Europe to photograph benches at those hours when no one was even around to use them. The photos were lonely, solitary, contemplative spaces. His act of capturing these places reminded me that not all art has to be full of symbols, meanings. It could also be a place to rest.

[aradhyabhatia]

I don't listen to audiobooks, I am a physical-copy-of-the-book person. But its your book with your voice that I am excited to listen to!

[arthurkuzikyan]

Being a huge Jim Jarmusch fan, I can not describe how joyfull it was to hear these thoughts about such an ordinary thing like this. That was absolutely beautiful.

[har]

I love this excerpt about bench. This is well-thought.

[TheCanvasArtHistory]

It's easy to overlook how powerful public benches can be. I can't wait to find out what other meanings I can discover and escape into through your book!

Beautifully written Evan!

[vincenttavani]

This reminds me of A Pattern Language, a book about town architecture, and of Strong Towns, a book about how to encourage towns to grow at a human scale. Both have given me a perspective that helps articulate why we feel so impoverished.

[jben]

Totally resonate with this. There's something beautiful about becoming invisible and just, well, being in the moment.

[sch]

I am usually amazed by the location some benches have. They are designed to let you pause while enjoying a beautiful city corner or a immersive landscape.

Honor to the people that select those places

[madlipzjagd]

You know what? You perfectly described your channel. This channel is the bench.

[HayleyFlynnSkylinerManchester]

As a bench fan (I run tours of them) and also being neurodivergent, I loved the bit about the invisibility cloak. Obviously, I've associated benches with accessibility but maybe not with the sort of solitude (whilst still being embraced by the city) that I sometimes need when it's all too much input. Thanks for this!

[asdsdjfasdjxajiosdqw]

The commodification of the public space has meant that the poor, especially the poor urban youth, have few places to congregate than the park bench. Make a bit too much noise and the cops get called, sending you home. And then we wonder why daily screen times are so high.

[elizabethdelossantos]

This made me think of forest gump and how for the entirety of the film he tells his story to strangers sitting on a public bench, waiting for the bus.

[Sfrags]

this is the best advertisement to a bench i’ve ever seen

[hoogyoutube]

Nerdwriter is the best video essayist on the platform, always

[Malcadon]

I too like public benches... when they are not being fucked with by asshole city planers who ether remove them outright or replace them with hostile architecture.

[Thebreakdownshow]

Wow, I never knew I could be this excited for a bench, a video about bench that feels poetic.

[johnnyc.]

That was nice, thank you. Anything that can make me re-examine the things and world “I know” is greatly appreciated. Even the most mundane and inanimate objects can take on deeper meanings with proper context.