Description

Book Synopsis

How to be Idle is Tom Hodgkinson''s brilliant guide to reclaiming your right to be idle

''Well written, funny and with a scholarly knowledge of the literature of laziness, it is both a book to be enjoyed at leisure and to change lives'' Sunday Times

As Oscar Wilde said, doing nothing is hard work. A burn-out work ethic has most of us in its thrall, and the idlers of this world have the odds stacked against them. But here, at last, is a book that can help. 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 affect the modern idler:
-Sleep
-Work
-Pleasure and hedonism
-Relationships
-Bohemian living
-Revolution

Drawing on the writings of such well-known apologists for idleness as Oscar Wilde, Robert Louis Stevenson and Nietzsche, his message is clear: t

How to be Idle

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    Order before 4pm tomorrow for delivery by Tue 23 Jun 2026.

    A Paperback / softback by Tom Hodgkinson

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      Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
      Publication Date: 30/06/2005
      ISBN13: 9780141015064, 978-0141015064
      ISBN10: 0141015063

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      How to be Idle is Tom Hodgkinson''s brilliant guide to reclaiming your right to be idle

      ''Well written, funny and with a scholarly knowledge of the literature of laziness, it is both a book to be enjoyed at leisure and to change lives'' Sunday Times

      As Oscar Wilde said, doing nothing is hard work. A burn-out work ethic has most of us in its thrall, and the idlers of this world have the odds stacked against them. But here, at last, is a book that can help. 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 affect the modern idler:
      -Sleep
      -Work
      -Pleasure and hedonism
      -Relationships
      -Bohemian living
      -Revolution

      Drawing on the writings of such well-known apologists for idleness as Oscar Wilde, Robert Louis Stevenson and Nietzsche, his message is clear: t

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