APRIL 28, 2026|BOOKS & REVIEWS
The Non-Obvious Book of the Week: Custodians of Wonder by Eliot Stein
There are people keeping ancient customs alive and their stories are in danger of being lost to the world. This is a book about how we can all remember them. Travel journalist Eliot Stein spent years traveling around the world to spend time with night watchmen, mirror makers, rope bridge builders and many others to ask them about their craft and why they continue to do what they have always done. Equal parts anthropology and travel memoir, this book not only takes you into stories that may soon be forgotten - it offers a bigger idea. In studying these dying cultures, we might also learn something about what it means to keep traditions that matter alive and what role each of us might play in shaping this for future generations.
About the Non-Obvious Book Selection of the Week:
Every week I share a new “non-obvious” book selection. Titles featured here may be new or classic books, but the date of publication doesn’t really matter. My goal is to elevate great reads that perhaps deserve a second look which you might have otherwise missed.
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How It All Started
A Short Backstory Of This Blog
This is a blog about non-obvious ideas. Originally launched on the Typepad platform in 2005 as the Influential Marketing blog, the stories at first focused mainly on digital marketing while Rohit worked at Ogilvy Advertising. In 2015 Rohit officially rebranded to the Non-Obvious Insights Blog and published his WSJ bestseller Non-Obvious. For the past twenty one years, this blog has coined new terms, introduced future marketing practices and inspired the next generation of non-obvious thinkers and marketers.
