The Art of Doing Nothing - Book Review

Are you feeling as if you’ve been spinning your wheels just to get nowhere?  Does life have way too many demands on your time? Are you considered a “Type A” personality always doing, doing, doing, or are you simply a product of today’s hyperactive, overly-scheduled culture? Do you feel downright guilty when you do nothing?

"Whenever friends or loved ones kindly suggest we relax – take a deep breath or unwind for a few days – we almost always protest.  Slowing down takes too much time.  A generation of doers, we have dedicated our lives to making things happen. We feel, quite rightly, that there is nothin’ we can’t do – except, of course, doing nothing."

In her book, The Art of Doing Nothing: Simple Ways to Make Time for Yourself, Véronique Vienne offers creative, humorous and even scientific views on doing nothing. Each of her ten chapters highlights an indulgent art – Procrastinating, Breathing, Meditating, Lounging, Yawning, Napping, Bathing, Tasting, Listening and Waiting – tempting us to revitalize the art not just for its own sake, but for ours.  

Although this small, unassuming book was written over a decade ago, the wisdom of its subject and contents are timeless and refreshing. And, at a time when multi-tasking and break-necking paces are the norm, one could use a little encouragement to not only slow down, but perhaps do nothing at all.


More Info: In Vienne's selected bibliography at the end of her book, she includes books which might be of interest to those seeking more exquisite idleness including Essays in Idleness, by Yoshida Kenko (translated by Donald Keene), The Right to Be Lazy by Paul Lafargue, In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays by Bertrand Russell.

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