How To Be Idle by Tom Hodgkinson, aims to change the way idleness is viewed.
I pick this book up from my friend’s bookshelf and had a great time reading it – in the midst of holiday craziness and trying to quiet my personal demon of “push harder, work more” …
From the founding editor of The Idler, the celebrated magazine about the freedom and fine art of doing nothing, comes not simply a book, but an antidote to our work-obsessed culture. In How to Be Idle, Tom Hodgkinson presents his learned yet whimsical argument for a new universal standard of living: being happy doing nothing. He covers a whole spectrum of issues affecting the modern idler—sleep, work, pleasure, relationships—while reflecting on the writing of such famous apologists for it as Oscar Wilde, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Nietzsche—all of whom have admitted to doing their very best work in bed
This is a good collection of witty, profound, and British-humor-infused essays to inspire those who would desire true leisure—that is, control over one’s time and thoughts, something that has largely eroded in our times. The book is like an explication of Pascal’s aphorism “All human evil comes from a single cause: man’s inability to sit still in a room”; a reframing of history as a grim battle between Industry and Idleness, stretched out leisurely and languorously over some 270 pages.The author is British, and correspondingly, the book is surprisingly literary; in fact, too many difficult poems are included in the text. Also, the book probably could have been shorter. (I am just not sure it SHOULD or not- to work with the premise of idleness)
The huge amount of anecdotes and quotes Hodgkinson has culled from the most obscure chambers of Anglo-American literary and labor history is especially impressive (hard to understand at time for an American-educated Taiwanese) but fun to read never the less. *** so true confession: I didn’t finish this book, though I read large chunks of it.
Within the one broad theme of ‘Idleness’, Hodgkinson manages to encompass so many neglegted yet important facets of life. Our need to work less and play more is justified in a very well written book using examples and quotes from some great thinkers through history.
The greatest strength of this book is that it gives you a warm feeling that things you enjoy – beer gardens, sleeping etc – are actually really good for you. The guilt associated with not working so many hours per week, or needing to get up early to do DIY, are actually relics from the industrial revolution. This era of mass production with time as a mere commodity can be changed if people take on board the ideas of this book and adjust their lives to suit their soul and not their bank balance.
Ironically, for someone who founded a magazine called the Idler, he sure has done his homework. One wishes they could be as industrious at idleness as Hodgkinson is. Finally, in the author’s own words: ‘There’s a revolution brewing, and the great thing is that to join it all you have to do is absolutely nothing.’ – perhaps I will idle my way into this revolution and finally bring some balance in my life soon.
Change The Learning Curve 