Zero Decibels: The Quest for Absolute Silence by George Michelsen Foy

Zero Decibels: The Quest for Absolute Silence by George Michelsen Foy

($22.00 ATA Members / $24.00 Non-Members)

Have our noise-soaked lives driven us mad? And is absolute silence an impossible goal - or the one thing that can save us? This book is a lively tale of one man's quest to find the grail of total quiet.

Author Foy begins his quest by carrying a pocket-sized decibel meter to measure areas he frequents the most- the subway, the local cafe, different rooms of his apartments- as well as places he visits that inform his search, including the Parisian catacombs, Joseph Pulitzer's "silent vault," the snowy expanses of the Berkshires, and a giant nickel mine in Canada, where he travels more than a mile underground to escape all human-made sound. Along the way, Foy experiments with noise-canceling headphones, floatation tanks, and silent meditation before he finally tackles a Minnesota laboratory's anechoic chamber that the Guinness Book of World Records calls the "quietest place on earth". 196 pages, hard cover.