![disappeared radio silence disappeared radio silence](https://www.tvguide.co.uk/channel_logos/870.png)
bookstore where I began this reading project. On my first day, I was surprised to discover a mirror image of the D.C. I recently returned to Berlin to work on a radio documentary about my search for silence. The quietest place I’ve ever lived is Germany, where sound regulations, urban forests and the occasional act of public shushing creates a different sonic landscape.
![disappeared radio silence disappeared radio silence](https://static.dw.com/image/52580220_401.jpg)
“Shutting out the world is not about turning your back on your surroundings,” he writes, “but rather the opposite: it is seeing the world a bit more clearly, staying a course and trying to love your life.” Kagge’s book was a visual feast of hazy horizons and poetic sentences about the value of silence. When I bought my first guide to silence, aptly titled “Silence,” by the Norwegian writer and explorer Erling Kagge, I was comforted to learn that I wasn’t alone in my struggle. I confess to a smartphone addiction and an unhealthy volume of streaming, bingeing and reading restlessness. For a long time, I thought I was alone in my inability to be present. It is the cumulative experience of personal space and a mind at rest, with room to think and contemplate.
![disappeared radio silence disappeared radio silence](https://youredrivingmewilde.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/radio-silence1.jpg)
Silence is more than the absence of noise. I’m tempted to dismiss my growing obsession with books about silence as a frivolous longing for “chicken soup for an angsty soul.” But the rise of this family of books speaks to a real need - and void - in contemporary life.