In Praise of Slowness: How a Worldwide Movement Is Challenging the Cult of Speed - Hardcover

Honore, Carl

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 006054578X ISBN 13: 9780060545789

Publisher: Harper San Francisco, 2004

Synopsis

Analyzes and challenges human history's cultures of speed and efficiency, identifying the benefits of a slower-paced lifestyle while noting time-defying practices of thirteenth-century Benedictine monks, during the Industrial Revolution, in the modern world, and more. 25,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

"Life is getting faster, no doubt about it. We rush everything: we eat fast food, have quickie sex, drive like maniacs, and compete hard for fast-paced jobs. We wish to slow down and slack off, but we're afraid we'll fail. The big secret is that slower people succeed, and slow often works better than fast. A London-based journalist, Honore shows us the benefits of slowness, with chapters on food, transportation, meditation and exercise, medicine, sex, work, and parenting. In all these areas, people are making organized efforts toward slower, stress-free methods, and he provides some concrete examples (Italy's Slow Food and Slow City movements, a Tantric sex workshop in London, Japan's new approach to schooling)....This book presents ideas and resources that will be new to most readers and is recommended for both public and academic libraries."
--"Library Journal Review
"A former 'speedaholic, ' an award-winning Canadian journalist advocates living a slower, more measured existence, in virtually every area, a philosophy he defines as 'balance.' The author explores, in convincing and skillful prose, a quiet revolution known as 'the slow movement, ' which is attempting to integrate the advances of the information age into a lifestyle that is marked by an 'inner slowness' that gives more depth to relationships with others and with oneself. For the overprogrammed and stressed, slow and steady may win the race."
--"Publisher's Weekly
"Honore's engaging report should be embraced by those with quality-of-life and environmental concerns."
--"Booklist
"Try reading this book one chapter a day -- it is worth allowing its subversive message to sink slowly in so it has a chanceof changing your life."
--Bill McKibben, author of Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age" and" The End of Nature
"
"The speed of life borders on insanity for an increasing number of us, and the price we pay is the erosion of our happiness and health. If you sometimes feel engulfed by the mad pace of modern life -- and who doesn't? -- Carl Honore's In Praise of Slow could prove life-saving."
--Larry Dossey, MD, Author: Healing Beyond the Body and Reinventing Medicine"
"In this terrific book, Carl Honore gets to the heart of what's ailing western industrial societies -- our obsession with productivity, speed and consumerism -- but he doesn't stop with the gloom and doom. Instead, he shows the way out, with inspiring examples from the growing worldwide 'slow' movement. Take the time to read this important, excellently written book" -- our future depends on the ideas it contains!"
--John de Graaf, co-author, Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic, and editor, Take Back Your Time
"It's about time someone insisted -- in intelligent, persuasive language -- that we all put on the brakes, or at least check the instruments on the dashboard. Through anecdote, statistic and argument, Honore wants to convert us to an atheism that is opposed to this culture's mad theology of speed."
-- Billy Collins, former US Poet Laureate
"Entrepreneur and slow may seem like oxymorons. However, taking the time to read Carl Honore's" In Praise of Slow may be the best decision an entrepreneur, or anyone working full time, can make."
-- Gary Erickson, Entrepreneur & CEO of Clif Bar Inc., and Author of Raising the Bar

."..a brilliant criticism of the culture of speed. Honor? is a proponent of the Slow movement, which encourages a deceleration of everything from cooking to business management, driving to talking styles-based on the belief that speed can produce disconnection from daily life."--O, The Oprah Magazine

"It is worth allowing its subversive message to sink slowly in so it has a chance of changing your life."--Bill McKibben, author of Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age and The End of Nature

"A persuasive case against mindless speed and an intriguing array of ways 'to make the moment last.'"--Los Angeles Times Book Review

"A friendly and intelligent guide for harried types looking to change gear at home, work or play."--Economist

"Take the time to read this important, excellently written book -- our future depends on the ideas it contains!"--John de Graaf, co-author, AFFLUENZA: The All-Consuming Epidemic, and editor, TAKE BACK YOUR TIME

"A skillful blend of investigative reportage, history and reflection on time and our relationship to it."--BookPage

"Taking the time to read this may be the best decision an entrepreneur, manager, or anyone working full time, can make."--Gary Erickson - Entrepreneur & CEO of Clif Bar Inc., and author of Raising the Bar

"If you sometimes feel engulfed by the mad pace of modern life ---- IN PRAISE OF SLOWNESS could prove life-saving."--Larry Dossey, MD -- Author: HEALING BEYOND THE BODY and REINVENTING MEDICINE

It is worth allowing its subversive message to sink slowly in so it has a chance of changing your life. --Bill McKibben, author of Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age and The End of Nature"

Book Description:

Across the western world more and more people are slowing down. Slower is better: better work, better productivity, better exercise, better sex, better food.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper San Francisco
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 006054578X
• ISBN 13: 9780060545789
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 310