After reading this book, I have decided to skip the review to enjoy the extra time. Oh? I have to write it? That’s “wage slavery!” according to author Tom Hodgkinson who uses that term for “jobs.” He reveals his life changed for the better once he trashed his alarm clock. By the way, I’m not really a “wage slave,” as I don’t get paid for these reviews — just plain “slave.”
The book covers a 24-hour period with each hour represented in an essay that starts with a quote and a sketch depicting the chapter’s topic. The author opens with “Waking up Is Hard to Do” at 8 a.m. and immediately attacks the quote many of us relate to when it comes to waking up — Benjamin Franklin’s “Early to bed…” philosophy. Hodgkinson recalls his mother screaming at him to wake up and now he starts his mornings as an idler by “sleeping in for a few more minutes.”
In the first hour, he attacks Mr. Kellogg of Corn Flakes fame with humor, and explains that the assault against oversleeping started as far back as biblical times with a quote from Proverbs chapter six. Then Hodgkinson presents proponents of sloth like G.K. Chesterston who writes in his essay On Lying in Bed, “The tone now commonly taken towards the practice of lying in bed is hypocritical and unhealthy; instead of being regarded as it ought to be, as a matter of personal.”
The hours that follow continue with the same approach while addressing different themes from ‘sleeping in’ to the hangover, to the art of the conversation and holidays. Every essay includes quotes and resources from the likes of Jerome K. Jerome, Winston Churchill, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and more to rally support for the idle life. Each hour stands on its own feet, so you can take your time and read them whenever.
This author doesn’t give advice on organizing your time so you can relax and take pleasure in life. Rather, think of it as the side of a debate that urges we sleep in, take naps, make time for tea, hang out at the pub, and live in our dream world. The author addresses the issues that affect the idler’s life and tells the reader how to continue the merry idle way in spite of these barriers. Even some of the smartest minds in history did their best work in bed.
Stories about inventor Thomas Edison, the enemy of idleness, say he slept only three or four hours a night because he liked to work at night and do his experiments during the day. It turns out, based on several witnesses; the inventor took naps in his lab.
The book needs an index, but perhaps the author convinced his editors to take it easy, so they skipped it. With the many references to people and quotes, it would be nice to find something I read without working that hard to scan the pages.
The book is a mixture of literary criticism, tongue-in-cheek wit, and insight into our society’s neglect of the idle life. Readers desiring to become more familiar with the literary authors and other sages get a touch of these folks through their writings, comments, and actions on work and laziness. Hodgkinson writes a convincing manifesto for living easy and embellishes it with a diversity of classic resources.
Take a moment to relish your life; work can wait.
Title: How to Be Idle
Author: Tom Hodgkinson
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0060779683
Date: May 2005
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 304
Cover Price: USD: $18.95 Amazon: $12.89
