Reality Hunger Audiobook By David Shields cover art

Reality Hunger

A Manifesto

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

Reality Hunger

By: David Shields
Narrated by: Peter Marinker
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $14.52

Buy for $14.52

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

Reality Hunger is a manifesto for a burgeoning group of interrelated but unconnected artists who, living in an unbearably artificial world, are breaking ever larger chunks of 'reality' into their work. The questions Shields explores - the bending of form and genre, the lure and blur of the real - play out constantly around us, and Reality Hunger is a radical reframing of how we might think about this 'truthiness'. Reality Hunger questions every assumption we ever made about art, the novel, journalism, poetry, film, TV, rap, stand-up, graffiti, sampling, plagiarism, writing, and reading. Drawing on myriad stances, David Shields seeks to tear up the old culture in search of something new and more authentic.

©2010 David Shields (P)2011 Penguin Audio Art

Critic reviews

"A rare and very peculiar thing: a wake-up call that is a pleasure to hear and respond to. A daring combination of montage and essay, it's crammed full of good things." (Geoff Dyer)
"I've just finished reading Reality Hunger and I'm lit up by it - astonished, intoxicated, ecstatic, overwhelmed." (Jonathan Lethem)
"Bold, entertaining, contentious. Essential reading for readers and writers." (Guardian)
"Weird, exciting, incendiary." (Dazed and Confused)
All stars
Most relevant  
A great book for opening up your unconscious brain, unlocking creativity, and pondering philosophical creative writing questions you might never have thought of on your own

A great intellectual and creative tool for serious writers

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.