What if architectural creativity is not only grounded in knowledge and skill but equally in a state of mind, a mood? Improbable though the suggestion may be, this original and marvelously well-studied book shows that from the 19th century onward boredom became a force that focused concentration and compelled experimentation.

David Leatherbarrow, University of Pennsylvania, USA

A fascinating exploration of boredom that builds on 19th-century literary narratives to understand its contemporary spatial manifestations. Parreno meanders through a multitude of boredoms, from the domestic to the monumentally bureaucratic, and from the modern generic to endlessly varied imagery-revealing unexpectedly reassuring aspects of boredom in the process.

Lara Schrijver, University of Antwerp, Belgium

Parreno liberates scholars from the perils of straightforward interpretations and analysis ... [This book] has the potential to complicate architectural historians' works on use, the user, and the space. It urges architectural historians to historicize not only these categories but also emotions.

Journal of Boredom Studies