Download or read book The Importance of Being Lazy written by Al Gini and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2006 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The great American fantasy is about leisure: wooded getaways, Caribbean cruises, white-water rafting, the lights of Las Vegas. Yet one in four Americans does not take a vacation at all. We know how to work hard but not how to play. What we really need, argues Al Gini, is some time off. The Importance of Being Lazy takes us on family road trips, to Disneyland, on shopping sprees, on extreme sports adventures, and into the ultimate vacation - retirement - showing why we venerate vacations and why "doing nothing" is a fundamental human necessity. In a witty, breezy tour of our workaholic society, where the summer at the seashore has been supplanted by the long weekend, Gini draws on studies of Americans' vacation habits as well as interviews, personal stories, and the wry observations of philosophers, writers, and sociologists from Aristotle to Mark Twain to Thorstein Veblen. Without true leisure, Gini says, we are diminished as individuals and as a society. The Importance of Being Lazy is our road map for learning how to play, doze, gaze, amble and goof-off without guilt." - back cover.
Download or read book Laziness Does Not Exist written by Devon Price and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-01-05 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From social psychologist Dr. Devon Price, a conversational, stirring call to “a better, more human way to live” (Cal Newport, New York Times bestselling author) that examines the “laziness lie”—which falsely tells us we are not working or learning hard enough. Extra-curricular activities. Honors classes. 60-hour work weeks. Side hustles. Like many Americans, Dr. Devon Price believed that productivity was the best way to measure self-worth. Price was an overachiever from the start, graduating from both college and graduate school early, but that success came at a cost. After Price was diagnosed with a severe case of anemia and heart complications from overexertion, they were forced to examine the darker side of all this productivity. Laziness Does Not Exist explores the psychological underpinnings of the “laziness lie,” including its origins from the Puritans and how it has continued to proliferate as digital work tools have blurred the boundaries between work and life. Using in-depth research, Price explains that people today do far more work than nearly any other humans in history yet most of us often still feel we are not doing enough. Filled with practical and accessible advice for overcoming society’s pressure to do more, and featuring interviews with researchers, consultants, and experiences from real people drowning in too much work, Laziness Does Not Exist “is the book we all need right now” (Caroline Dooner, author of The F*ck It Diet).
Download or read book Importance of Being Idle written by Stephen Robins and published by . This book was released on 2001-10 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The time that a man may call his own,” observed Charles Lamb, “that is his life.” In an age of increasingly long and stressful working hours, The Importance of Being Idle is a call-to-arms for would-be loafers to turn their hands to absolutely nothing whatsoever. This compendium of guidance and wisdom from prominent loafers argues with stunning wit and impeccable logic that idling plays an important role in both the progress of civilization and in our daily well-being. Just the thing to bring harried executives to their senses or to help committed idlers while away the lazy hours.
Download or read book The Restless Compendium written by Felicity Callard and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-09-27 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is open access under a CC BY license. This interdisciplinary book contains 22 essays and interventions on rest and restlessness, silence and noise, relaxation and work. It draws together approaches from artists, literary scholars, psychologists, activists, historians, geographers and sociologists who challenge assumptions about how rest operates across mind, bodies, and practices. Rest’s presence or absence affects everyone. Nevertheless, defining rest is problematic: both its meaning and what it feels like are affected by many socio-political, economic and cultural factors. The authors open up unexplored corners and experimental pathways into this complex topic, with contributions ranging from investigations of daydreaming and mindwandering, through histories of therapeutic relaxation and laziness, and creative-critical pieces on lullabies and the Sabbath, to experimental methods to measure aircraft noise and track somatic vigilance in urban space. The essays are grouped by scale of enquiry, into mind, body and practice, allowing readers to draw new connections across apparently distinct phenomena. The book will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines in the social sciences, life sciences, arts and humanities.
Download or read book The Importance of Being Funny written by Al Gini and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2017-07-25 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When E. B. White said “analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog; few people are interested and the frog dies,” he hadn’t seen Al Gini’s hilarious, incisive, and informative take on jokes, joke-telling, and the jokers who tell jokes. For Gini, humor is more than just foolish fun: it serves as a safety valve for dealing with reality that gives us the courage to endure that which we cannot understand or avoid. Not everyone tells jokes. Not everyone gets a joke, even a good one. But, Gini argues, joke-telling can act as both a sword and a shield to defend us from reality. As the late, great stand-up comic Joan Rivers put it: ‘If you can laugh at it, you can live with it!’ This book is for anyone who enjoys a good laugh, but also wants to know why.
Download or read book The Importance of Being Myrtle written by Ulrika Jonsson and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2011-09-01 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is a death in the family the chance for a new start? When Myrtle's husband, Austin, dies on the bus one morning, everything seems to freeze. But in reality Myrtle has been frozen for nearly forty years, locked into an emotionless marriage. So if the barriers have been lifted, why does she still feel trapped? Her daughters are a mystery to her - one prickly and defensive, the other with a closely guarded secret. And thanks to Austin's cold presence, friends are a rarity. How is a widow supposed to find herself when she's alone and unconfident of her place in the world? But hope might rest with Gianni, the kind stranger in whose arms Austin died. And when nosy neighbour Dorothy discovers Myrtle's sad news, she also refuses to let her wallow. But Myrtle will never move on until she's dealt with her past and the reason for her devotion to Austin. The truth must out, even though the consequences might prove devastating for Myrtle and her daughters ...
Download or read book The Myth Of Laziness written by Mel Levine and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-12-11 with total page 451 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most common complaints parents hear is that their child has great potential but is lazy. In the workplace one hears that a colleague is brilliant but just can't seem to deliver on time. Dr Levine believes that in reality very few people are truly lazy. Nearly all 'lazy' children and unproductive adults are in fact suffering from some sort of 'output failure,' that is, some problem of the mind that inhibits their productivity, despite their good intentions. In this book Dr Levine draws heavily on his years of clinical experience to construct the stories of representative children and adults who failed to be productive for the most common reasons. Too often we focus only on failure but people benefit enormously from recognition of their successes. In explaining outside or environmental factors that can affect productivity, Dr Levine points to the role of parents as well as teachers in identifying a child's weaknesses and nurturing the capacity to deliver, with such practical suggestions as describing the ideal study environment for a child. Whether the problem is manifested in motor breakdown, memory shortfall, verbal problems, lack of mental energy or underlying disorganization, Dr Levine provides a workable solution and dismisses the 'lazy' label.
Download or read book Why It s Hard To Be Good written by Al Gini and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-31 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a series of brief chapters, Al Gini lays out ideas for 'stepping out of the shadow of the self' - an argument for stopping thinking of yourself as the centre of the universe. It's hard to be good, he explains, until we realize that being good only has meaning in relation to other people. Ideas of justice, fairness, and ethical behavior are just that - abstract ideas - until they are put into action with regard to people outside ourselves. We may worry too much about good versus evil - big concepts that give us plenty of room to sit on the right side of the equation, he argues. Instead, we need to be thinking about how being good involves an active relationship toward others. Being good all by yourself may not be good enough. This warm and generous book is for anyone who wants to know how to use ethical thinking as way to live, work, and be with others.
Download or read book Why We Sleep written by Matthew Walker and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-10-03 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Sleep is one of the most important but least understood aspects of our life, wellness, and longevity ... An explosion of scientific discoveries in the last twenty years has shed new light on this fundamental aspect of our lives. Now ... neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker gives us a new understanding of the vital importance of sleep and dreaming"--Amazon.com.
Download or read book Shut Up Stop Whining and Get a Life written by Larry Winget and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-07-08 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shut Up, Stop Whining, and Get a Life was immediately hailed as "not your average self-help book" and demanded attention and praise right out of the gate. It is now considered one of the icons of the personal development movement. Now, Larry Winget is back with his signature caustic, no-nonsense, hilarious style, which earned him the titles "Pitbull of Personal Development®" and "World's Only Irritational Speaker®." Winget's "get off your butt and go to work" approach to self-improvement boils success down to a simple formula: Everything in your life gets better when you get better. Get tangible advice from one of the world's most successful speakers and the author of five bestselling books and television personality. Learn the keys to turning your life, money and business around. Stop making excuses, stop blaming others and take responsibility for your life and your results The brutal advice he offers has changed the lives of millions of people and increased sales for countless businesses. In this Second Edition of Shut Up, Stop Whining, and Get a Life, Winget takes the same principles and expands the lessons with brand new examples, stories, and added wisdom. It may sound ruthless, but your life is your own fault and if you shut up, stop whining, and take action you can create a better life.
Download or read book In praise of idleness written by Bertrand Russell and published by . This book was released on 1972 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Verzamelde opstellen van de Engelse wijsgeer (1872-1970)
Download or read book Perimenopause Power written by Maisie Hill and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-03-04 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Maisie's knowledge of hormones changed my life... you need this book' Anna Jones 'Hill's advice is straightforward and no-nonsense' The Guardian 'An informative must-read for any woman – whatever their age' Vogue online During perimenopause three quarters of women will experience symptoms such as mood changes, insomnia, hot flushes, and night sweats, but there is little in the way of evidence-based information out there to help and guide us. Perimenopause Power is the essential handbook to understanding what the hell's going on and to empower us to improve our experience of the dreaded 'change'. Maisie Hill, the highly qualified women's health expert, best-selling author of Period Power and founder of The Flow Collective, takes us through the physiological changes of perimenopause and menopause, step by step, with calm positivity. In this invaluable guide she shares tips and advice to support women through the challenge of wildly fluctuating hormones. A must-read for anyone looking for a well-researched, evidenced-based book on perimenopause and menopause that gives women the information they need to address their hormonal needs. Perimenopause Power will help women to understand what's going on with their bodies and how to deal with troublesome symptoms, and share valuable insights into making it a positive and powerful experience. 'Maisie Hill helps you understand the changes in your body and psyche during the lead-up to menopause and how to handle symptoms.' Top Santé 'Maisie Hill gets rid of myths, sheds light and allows for an open, honest and much-needed conversation' Mind
Download or read book The Lazy Genius Way written by Kendra Adachi and published by WaterBrook. This book was released on 2020 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Be productive without sacrificing peace of mind using Lazy Genius principles that help you focus on what really matters and let go of what doesn't. If you need a comprehensive strategy for a meaningful life but are tired of reading stacks of self-help books, here is an easy way that actually works. No more cobbling together life hacks and productivity strategies from dozens of authors and still feeling tired. The struggle is real, but it doesn't have to be in charge. With wisdom and wit, the host of The Lazy Genius Podcast, Kendra Adachi, shows you that it's not about doing more or doing less; it's about doing what matters to you. In this book, she offers fourteen principles that are both practical and purposeful, like a Swiss army knife for how to be a person. Use them in combination to "lazy genius" anything, from laundry and meal plans to making friends and napping without guilt. It's possible to be soulful and efficient at the same time, and this book is the blueprint. The Lazy Genius Way isn't a new list of things to do; it's a new way to see. Skip the rules about getting up at 5 a.m. and drinking more water. Let's just figure out how to be a good person who can get stuff done without turning into The Hulk. These Lazy Genius principles--such as Decide Once, Start Small, Ask the Magic Question, and more--offer a better way to approach your time, relationships, and piles of mail, no matter your personality or life stage. Be who you already are, just with a better set of tools.
Download or read book Idleness written by Brian O'Connor and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-04-07 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "For millennia, idleness and laziness have been regarded as vices. We're all expected to work to survive and get ahead, and devoting energy to anything but labor and self-improvement can seem like a luxury or a moral failure. Far from questioning this conventional wisdom, modern philosophers have worked hard to develop new reasons to denigrate idleness. In Idleness, the first book to challenge modern philosophy's portrayal of inactivity, Brian O'Connor argues that the case against an indifference to work and effort is flawed--and that idle aimlessness may instead allow for the highest form of freedom. Idleness explores how some of the most influential modern philosophers drew a direct connection between making the most of our humanity and avoiding laziness. Idleness was dismissed as contrary to the need people have to become autonomous and make whole, integrated beings of themselves (Kant); to be useful (Kant and Hegel); to accept communal norms (Hegel); to contribute to the social good by working (Marx); and to avoid boredom (Schopenhauer and de Beauvoir). O'Connor throws doubt on all these arguments, presenting a sympathetic vision of the inactive and unserious that draws on more productive ideas about idleness, from ancient Greece through Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, Schiller and Marcuse's thoughts about the importance of play, and recent critiques of the cult of work. A thought-provoking reconsideration of productivity for the twenty-first century, Idleness shows that, from now on, no theory of what it means to have a free mind can exclude idleness from the conversation."--Provided by publisher
Download or read book The Importance of Being Famous written by Maureen Orth and published by Henry Holt and Company. This book was released on 2014-02-04 with total page 519 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vanity Fair's veteran special correspondent pulls back the curtain on the world of celebrity and those who live and die there Vanity Fair's Maureen Orth always makes news. From Hollywood to murder trials to the corridors of politics, this National Magazine Award winner covers lives led in public, on camera, in the headlines. Here she takes us close-up into the world of fame--bridging entertainment, politics, and news--and the lives of those who understand the chemistry, the very DNA, of fame and how to create it, manipulate it, sustain it. Moving from former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to Michael Jackson, the ultimate child/monster of show business, Orth describes our evolution from a society where talent attracted attention to a place where the star-making machinery of the "celebrity-industrial complex" shapes, reshapes, and sells its gods (and monsters) to the public. From divas letting their hair down (Tina Turner) to Little Gods (Woody Allen and Princess Diana's almost father-in-law Mohammed Fayed), political theater (Arnold's Hollywood hubris, Arianna Huffington's guru-guided gubernatorial quest), news-gone-soap-opera (I Love Laci), and even the Queen Mother of reinvention (Madonna as dominatrix/children's-book author), Orth delivers a portrait of an era. The Importance of Being Famous shows us the real world of the big room where the rules that govern mere mortals don't matter--and anonymity is a crime.
Download or read book The Importance of Being Ernie written by Barry Livingston and published by Kensington Publishing Corp.. This book was released on 2011-05-26 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I SPENT MY ENTIRE LIFE PLAYING NERDS. . .—Barry Livingston A true Hollywood survivor, Barry Livingston is one of the few child stars who turned early success into a lifelong career. As "Ernie" on the 1960s sit-com My Three Sons—which also featured his real-life brother Stanley as "Chip"—Barry become instantly recognizable for his horn-rimmed glasses and goofy charm. Five decades later, after working on TV shows like Mad Men and Desperate Housewives, and in feature films like Zodiac and The Social Network, Barry Livingston is one actor who knows The Importance of Being Ernie. . . In this fascinating and funny memoir, Barry reveals his most unforgettable anecdotes: Working on set with Fred McMurray, Ozzie and Harriet, Lucille Ball and Dick Van Dyke. Riding a limousine with Elvis Presley. Trying to upstage Ron "Opie" Howard. Even shooting a Superbowl beer commercial with Brad Pitt. At first, Barry's lazy eye and horn-rimmed glasses nearly derailed his career, getting him kicked off his first major film starring Paul Newman. Eventually, his "nerdy" look became his biggest asset, landing Barry a recurring role on Ozzie & Harriet and a regular part on My Three Sons. Fifty years later, Barry is still going strong—from the stage and small screen to to featured film roles opposite Adam Sandler and Robert Downey, Jr.. Like most Hollywood actors, Barry experienced some incredible highs and lows along the way, but he never gave up. "I've been around half a century," he affirms. "And I'm not going away." This is how one child star beat the odds and survived the dark side of the Hollywood dream factory—with charm, wit, determination. . .and big horn-rimmed glasses. This is The Importance of Being Ernie. Barry Livingston has been a professional actor on stage and screen for more than fifty years. Best known for his role as "Ernie" on the long-running TV program, My Three Sons, Livingston continues to appear regularly in feature films and television shows. He is married with two children, and lives in Los Angeles. Praise For The Importance Of Being Ernie "This wryly told saga of a child star who miraculously avoided the crash-and-burn fate of so many of the once-famous. . . an engaging tale of the unusual life of a humorous, modest, and observant man. Barry Livingston delivers a frank and funny tale of TV, movies, and family life." —Brent Maddock, co-author of Tremors and Short Circuit "For a child star, he's almost normal. This poor kid had to sit on William Frawley's lap; we're lucky he's not on a roof with a rifle. . .. Barry is one of those rare child stars who grew up to become an accomplished adult actor. Having logged fifty years in show business, working with everyone from Lucille Ball and Jack Benny to Brad Pitt and Robert Downey, Jr., he's got a great story to tell." —Paul Jackson, Producer Charmed and Sliders. "I have known Barry Livingston since he was nine years old. He always made me laugh. Now he's kept me awake reading his wonderful autobiography. There's a lot of talent in those size eight shoes." —Gene Reynolds, director of TV's M.A.S.H.and Promised Land
Download or read book Accidental Gods written by Anna Della Subin and published by Metropolitan Books. This book was released on 2021-12-07 with total page 435 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY ESQUIRE, THE IRISH TIMES AND THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT A provocative history of men who were worshipped as gods that illuminates the connection between power and religion and the role of divinity in a secular age Ever since 1492, when Christopher Columbus made landfall in the New World and was hailed as a heavenly being, the accidental god has haunted the modern age. From Haile Selassie, acclaimed as the Living God in Jamaica, to Britain’s Prince Philip, who became the unlikely center of a new religion on a South Pacific island, men made divine—always men—have appeared on every continent. And because these deifications always emerge at moments of turbulence—civil wars, imperial conquest, revolutions—they have much to teach us. In a revelatory history spanning five centuries, a cast of surprising deities helps to shed light on the thorny questions of how our modern concept of “religion” was invented; why religion and politics are perpetually entangled in our supposedly secular age; and how the power to call someone divine has been used and abused by both oppressors and the oppressed. From nationalist uprisings in India to Nigerien spirit possession cults, Anna Della Subin explores how deification has been a means of defiance for colonized peoples. Conversely, we see how Columbus, Cortés, and other white explorers amplified stories of their godhood to justify their dominion over native peoples, setting into motion the currents of racism and exclusion that have plagued the New World ever since they touched its shores. At once deeply learned and delightfully antic, Accidental Gods offers an unusual keyhole through which to observe the creation of our modern world. It is that rare thing: a lyrical, entertaining work of ideas, one that marks the debut of a remarkable literary career.
