Customer Reviews

The Joy of Laziness: Why Life Is Better Slower -- and How to Get There

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This fun, easy-to-read book is a breath of fresh air -- especially as the winter weather and workload are looming out my window and on my desk. (Just looking at the cover relieves my stress!) The new research is intriguing and their advice for good health makes intuitive, as well as scientific, sense. I enjoyed the anecdotes, the authors' sense of humor, and their tips and strategies. Now I'm off to take a recommended "30-second nap"....

I see a lot of very negative reviews on this site. And honestly, I think that these people are too much set in their own thoughts before they read the book. It's true the book is not entirely scientifically backed. But I think they have the right idea in a lot of their philosophy. When we work hard, we wear our body out. When we eat more than we expend energy to account for, we overload our body. There's a lot in life that we don't understand yet. When lab rats are fed a lot less than they normally would eat, why is there a gene activated that allows them to live longer? This study does not appear in this book alone, I've heard it from several independent sources. So while I don't condone sitting on your butt and never eating, I think that this book has a lot of really positive ideas in it that we would all do well to consider.

First, the book is titled to sell, not to describe the contents. A better title would be, "Live Longer By Using Less Energy", which is a much better summary. The book explores this topic with some contrarian theories, such as endurance exercise shortening life span once you are past your 20s, and some more established ones, such as calorie restriction and stress reduction increase health and life span.

Unfortunately, the authors usually support their claims with anectdotes. For instance, Winston Churchill hated exercise and lived a long time. Jim Fixx was a jogging evangelist and died young of a heart attack. Clearly, endurance exercise is bad for you. This sort of "reasoning" is throughout the book. There are occasional endnotes with various studies that may or may not support them (I haven't investigated), but little context around the study. It might say, "There was a study that showed people who woke up before 7:20 AM had more cortisol in their blood than those who woke up later, regardless of bedtime," and then move on to something else. The fact(?) is interesting, but the book does not give you enough detail of the study to evaluate it with any independence.

On the positive side, it does hint at some interesting possibilities and give some useful suggestions. For example, it recommends juggling as stress relief (with another unexplained reference to a study), and occasional fasting instead of continual small portions as a way to achieve caloric restriction.

Because it's a fast read, it may be worth picking up at the library and breezing through for the bright spots. However, I can't recommend buying this book. A future effort would be much better with a more rigorous look at the science that may be out there and the help of a science writer.

This book is annoyingly stupid. It's begging for attention with giving people what they want (but not necessarily what's good for them): laziness; "no sport" - plenty of stories about marathon runners who dropped dead because they were using up their energy to quickly; advise to give up on legumes because they'll kill you, unless you are a true vegetarian (in this case you need them). Medical limits for blood pressure and cholesterol, for example, are outdated and too high, and the recommendation to skip breakfast or dinner - well we had this before and I think it was well proven that this is not the best way to start or end your day. The authors may have had fun writing this book together, but there is no reason to be proud of it. While I agree that we could all benefit from doing less, with lots of really great books out there on how to slow your life down, and boost your health, this one is a complete waste of time and money.

You're going to take dietary and physiological advice from a dermatologist and a sociologist? While I agree with their basic premise of taking it slower in your life, some of their strategies and "theories" are a little off-base. Their basic theory regarding your energy stores and how you use them is pretty far out (when you use your allotted amount up, you die) Gee, how come I never heard about that "theory" in nursing school? I don't need to address all the particulars, just to caution you that just because they quote a few research studies doesn't mean that their theory is gospel and that you should necessarily make the dietary or other significant physiological changes. Some of them are not the wisest from the conventional medical point of view.

Yes, I agree with them: Slow down, take time to smell the roses. Work on decreasing stress in your life. Eat healthy. Exercise moderately. Gee, do ya need a book to tell you these things. Skip this one. I forced myself to finish it as it was a present, but it wasn't the most satisfying or stimulating read. By spending your money on it, all you are doing is enriching the authors so they can incorporate a little indolence into their lives!

This book reads like a textbook. It sites research about the physiology of stress on the body. It also sites reasons to change your diet to aide your body's response to stress. It made me anxious to change my stress level, but it didn't give many practical tips for implementing stress-reducing measures in my life.