Noise Annoys...Stuart Sim takes it on with his 'Manifesto for Silence'

As much as I like music, there are times when I could do without.

It seems you cannot walk into a store, a restaurant or even visit the bathroom without being force fed sounds.

In Manifesto for Silence (Edinburgh University Press), Stuart Sim surveys how noise pollution is in danger of overwhelming our lives be it through airplanes, construction sites, cell phones, booming bass sounds from car sound systems and many other sources.

Noise Annoys (to paraphrase The Buzzcocks) as Lynsey Hanley highlights in Drowned in Sound, her New Statesman review of the book.

My take on 'Manifesto for Silence' would not be so much that we ban all sounds but rather that we create and/or preserve some Quiet Oasis where we can can just sit there and pause.

Some of these Oasis can be found near The Vertical Gardens.

Related stories: Noise Annoys, Loud Restaurants and Stores and  Everybody's Happy Nowadays...Buzzcocks and AARP