The Idler's Glossary (Paperback)

~ Joshua Glenn (Author), Mark Kingwell (Introduction)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

"Dawdler." "Layabout." "Shit-heel." "Loser." For as long as mankind has had to work for a living, which is to say ever since the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, people who work have disparaged those who prefer not to. This glossary, which closely examines the etymology and history of hundreds of idler-specific terms and phrases (whether pejorative, positive, or simply descriptive), aims not merely to correct popular misconceptions about idling, but to serve as a preliminary foundation for a new mode of thinking about working and not-working. It is intended to be specifically useful for journalists, who will never again have any excuse for describing an indolent person as "languid," Epicurean behavior as "dissipated," or an idler as a "slacker."

Kingwell's introduction offers a thoughtful but playful defense of the idler as the highest form of life, enlisting support from literary and philosophical sources (Aristotle, Kierkegaard, Russell, Bataille) as well as making some key distinctions: leisure v. 'leisure time'; idler v. slacker; not doing v. failing to do.

The Idler's Glossary is destined to become the Devil's Dictionary for the idling classes, necessary reading for any and all who wish to introduce more truly "free" time into daily lives.

About the Author

Joshua Glenn is an independent scholar and journalist. He writes a blog and a weekly column for The Boston Globe's Ideas section; and he is the editor of Taking Things Seriously, a book about 75 ordinary objects with extraordinary significance. In the 1990s, he published the journal Hermenaut. He lives and writes in Boston. Mark Kingwell is professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto and a contributing editor of Harper's Magazine. He is the author of ten books of political and cultural theory, including the national best-sellers Better Living (1998) and The World We Want (2000), and, most recently, Nearest Thing to Heaven: The Empire State Building and American Dreams (2006).

Product Details

• Paperback: 126 pages
• Publisher: Biblioasis; illustrated edition edition (September 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1897231466
• ISBN-13: 978-1897231463
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 3.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: No customer reviews yet. Be the first.
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #938,530 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)