From Tom Hodgkinson, editor of the Idler, comes How To Be Idle, an antidote to the work-obsessed culture which puts so many obstacles between ourselves and our dreams.
Hodgkinson presents us with a laid-back argument for a new contract between routine and chaos, an argument for experiencing life to the full and living in the moment. Ranging across a host of issues that may affect the modern idler – sleep, the world of work, pleasure and hedonism, relationships, bohemian living, revolution – he draws on the writings of such well-known apologists for idleness as Dr Johnson, Oscar Wilde, Robert Louis Stevenson and Nietzsche.
The book’s contents are not a joke. The author corroborates the content with the scientific evidence, accompanied by a lot of quotes and footnotes. He also proves that being idle is much productive than working in a robotic fashion.
The book is easily understandable, with many humorous examples and theses like “the invention of the light bulb meant that there was then no excuse for being idle.” The chapters in the book reflect its humorous character: ‘Waking Up is Hard to Do’, ‘Sleeping In’, ‘Skiving for Pleasure and Profit’, ‘The Hangover’, ‘The Death of Lunch’…
At the end of this intelligently subversive book there is a list of useful websites, books and articles that cover the same or similar topics. In Serbia, the book has been published by Dosije, translated by Nevena Mrdjenovic and sold at Delfi bookstores. The foreword is written by Dusan Mrdjenovic, and the book has 330 pages which prove that idleness does increase productivity, contrary to popular belief.
(Blic, The Idler, 13.04.2017)
http://www.blic.rs/kultura/vesti/vodic-za-lencarenje/y1qdhpl
http://idler.co.uk/product/how-to-be-idle-paperback-signed-edition/
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