In this engaging and entertaining exploration, award-winning journalist and rehabilitated speedaholic Carl Honoré details our perennial love affair with efficiency and speed in a perfect blend of anecdotal reportage, history, and intellectual inquiry. People are discovering energy and efficiency where they may have been least expected - in slowing down. The Slow philosophy can be summed up in a single word - balance.

This is a modern revolution, championed by cell-phone using, e-mailing lovers of sanity. Here you will find no Luddite calls to overthrow technology and seek a preindustrial utopia. Why are we always in such a rush? What is the cure for time sickness? Is it possible, or even desirable, to slow down? Realizing the price we pay for unrelenting speed, people all over the world are reclaiming their time and slowing down the pace - and living happier, healthier, and more productive lives as a result.

In Praise of Slowness traces the history of our increasingly breathless relationship with time and tackles the consequences of living in this accelerated culture of our own creation. Living on the edge of exhaustion, we are constantly reminded by our bodies and minds that the pace of life is spinning out of control. 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 currently devote on average a mere half hour per week to making love. Since the Industrial Revolution shifted the world into high gear, the cult of speed has pushed us to a breaking point. We strain to be more efficient, to cram more into each minute, each hour, each day. He examines how we can continue to live productive lives by embracing the tenets of the slow movement.We live in the age of speed. In an entertaining and hands-on investigation of this new movement, Honore takes us from a Tantric sex workshop in a trendy neighbourhood in London, England to Bra, Italy, the home of the Slow Food, Slow Cities and Slow Sex movements. Groups of people are developing a recipe for living better in a fast-paced, modern environment by striving for a new balance between fast and slow. Thanks to speed, we are living in the age of rage.?Carl Honore has discovered a movement that is quickly working its way into the mainstream. But when speed is king, anyone or anything that gets in our way, that slows us down, becomes an enemy. We live in a world where speed rules and everyone is under pressure to go faster.

Summary: In Praise of Slow heralds a growing international movement of people dedicated to slowing down the pace of our contemporary times and enjoying a richer, fuller life as a result.?These days, almost everyone complains about the hectic pace of their lives.

In Praise of Slowness by Carl Honoré