In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed

by Carl Honoré

Book Overview

We live in the age of speed. We strain to be more efficient, to cram more into each minute, each hour, each day. Since the Industrial Revolution shifted the world into high gear, the cult of speed has pushed us to a breaking point. Consider these facts: Americans on average spend seventy-two minutes of every day behind the wheel of a car, a typical business executive now loses sixty-eight hours a year to being put on hold, and American adults...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060750510
• ISBN13: 9780060750510
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: HarperOne
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 2.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.2" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Fine book

It's a fine book. I read it for a class and wrote a 3 page single space paper on it. It was an enjoyable read and written well. It talks much about the "Slow Movement". One can look that up on Google or Wikipedia.

enjoyed the read

I really enjoyed the book, it helped changed my perspective on all the rushing around we do. I have since loaned this book to a few friends, who in turn find it useful...The point gets a bit be-laboured by the end, and I skipped around reading the chapters that were more applicable to my life. Overall, would recommend this book to others as a good read and a go head to slow down your life!

read it S L O W L Y

a great book--one of the best I have read this year--and I have learned a lot!!

Feelin' groovy

I have been gradually embracing slowness in my life for some time, starting with saying "no" to so many after-work activities, cooking more often, walking away from my desk occasionally, and, most importantly, just taking the time to enjoy the moment instead of thinking about what I must do in the next moment. It took me more years than I care to acknowledge to realize that I am, and always have been, pretty much Slow in my ways, and to just stop trying to be otherwise. So I was already in the "slow is beautiful" camp when I picked up this book. Carl Honore's well-researched and balanced look at slowing down merely confirmed what I already know: taking time to enjoy the moment, take care of one's self, nourish relationships, and just simply be still is the key to happiness and health, at least for me. Honore starts by discussing the real downside of the Fast life: stress-related illnesses, sleep deprivation, feeling out of control, feeling rage. He then discusses the benefits of the Slow life: feeling more creative and satisfied with life, just for starters. Then he describes how people are slowing down in different aspects of life: cooking and eating, work, leisure time... Finally, he wraps it all up by asking us to evaluate ways we can slow down. The back of the book contains lots of resources to get us started. I liked many things about this book, besides agreeing completely with the premise: Honore emphasizes balance -- that there are times when we should be Fast, and, for example, there is nothing wrong with working lots of hours if you really like to; his arguments are well-supported by his research and are not extreme; he acknowledges that making changes is not easy, yet gives us many practical examples of ways we can slow down; and the book was so well written and logically laid out that, much as I tried to, I couldn't read it slowly! If you like this book, you might also check out Take Back Your Time, edited by John De Graaf; Affluenza, also by De Graaf; and Work to Live by Joe Robinson. I have read the first, a collection of essays by time experts, and have the other two on my list.

TAKE IT EASY, BUD..

Along the way I've picked up several religions and spiritual books of all stripes that advocate the benefits of meditation, silence, and retreats as ways to heal the body, mind, and soul. But Honore's well researched treatise provides what I believe is the first incisive overview of an important cultural phenomenon as we immerse our lives in instant online messengers, SMS thumb tribes, skipped breakfast, limp chicken sandwiches for lunch, and a bout of 'power yoga' to punctuate that little crevice of a break in the evenings.. Honore's writing style may occasionally wear a "Manifesto" dress and many of his suggestions to live a slow life may have a fairly non-trivial opportunity cost depending on where you live, but it is a very timely and wonderfully thought-provoking read nonetheless.