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The Importance of Being Lazy: In Praise of Play, Leisure, and Vacation

by Al Gini

The Importance of Being Lazy: In Praise of Play, Leisure, and Vacation Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

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.

Table of Contents

Prologue: The project and the problem — The other side of leisure: work, damn it! — Leisure and culture: the importance of being lazy — Vacations and traveling — Minivacations: the weekend — Shopping as leisure and play — Sports and play — The ultimate vacation: retirement — Epilogue: Sabbath as metaphor.

Product Details

ISBN:
9780415938792
Subtitle:
In Praise of Play, Leisure, and Vacation
Author:
Gini, Al
Author:
Gini Al
Publisher:
Routledge
Location:
New York
Subject:
General
Subject:
Leisure
Subject:
Vacations
Subject:
Social history
Subject:
Work
Subject:
Popular Culture - General
Subject:
Leisure -- United States.
Edition Description:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Series Volume:
P20-544
Publication Date:
May 2003
Binding:
Hardcover
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Yes
Pages:
176
Dimensions:
854x652x81 79

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