Carl Honore

We live in the age of speed. We strain to be more efficient, to cram more into each minute, each hour, each day. Since the Industrial Revolution shifted the world into high gear, the cult of speed has pushed us to a breaking point. 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. 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. 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. 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. A Slow revolution is taking place. Here you will find no Luddite calls to overthrow technology and seek a preindustrial utopia. This is a modern revolution, championed by cell-phone using, e-mailing lovers of sanity. The Slow philosophy can be summed up in a single word -- balance. People are discovering energy and efficiency where they may have been least expected -- in slowing down. 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. In Praise of Slowness is the first comprehensive look at the worldwide Slow movements making their way into the mainstream -- in offices, factories, neighborhoods, kitchens, hospitals, concert halls, bedrooms, gyms, and schools. Defining a movement that is here to stay, this spirited manifesto will make you completely rethink your relationship with time.

Challenging the Cult of Speed

In Praise of Slowness

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER - OVER 1/2 MILLION COPIES SOLD 30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION WITH NEW PREFACE Across the western world more and more people are slowing down. Slower is better: better work, better productivity, better exercise, better sex, better food. DON'T HURRY, BE HAPPY. Almost everyone complains about the hectic pace of their lives. These days, our culture teaches that faster is better. But in the race to keep up, everything suffers - our work, diet and health, our relationships and sex lives. International bestselling author Carl Honoré uncovers a movement that challenges the cult of speed. In this entertaining and hands-on investigation, he takes us on a tour of the emerging Slow movement: from a Tantric sex workshop in London to a meditation room for Tokyo executives, from a SuperSlow exercise studio in New York, to Italy, the home of the Slow Food, Slow Cities and Slow Sex movements. There has never been a better time to embrace the healing power of living slow.

How a Worldwide Movement is Challenging the Cult of Speed

In Praise of Slow

Elogio De La Lentitud

Carl Honoré captured the zeitgeist with his international bestseller, In Praise of Slow. Now he tackles another rising global movement: our revolutionary new approach to a human inevitability--ageing. A revolution in how we age is on its way. Yes, ageing is inevitable: one year from now we will all be a year older; that will never change. What can and will change is how we age--and how we can all take a much bolder approach to doing it with vigour and joy. The time has come to cast off prejudices and to blur the lines of what is possible and permissible at every stage of life. In other words: we need to learn to re-imagine our approach to later life. Emboldening ourselves in older age demands big structural changes. For a start, we will have to tear up the old script that locks us into devoting the early part of our life to education, the middle chunk to working and raising kids, and whatever is left over at the end to leisure. In an age-inappropriate world, these silos will dissolve. We'll embrace the idea that we can carry on learning from start to finish; that we can work less and devote more time to family, leisure, and giving back to our communities in our middle years; and that we can remain active and engaged in our later years. Carl Honoré has travelled the globe speaking to influential figures who are bucking preconceived notions of age, whether at work or in their personal lives. He looks at the cultural, medical, and technological developments that are opening new possibilities for us all. Bolder is a radical re-think of our approach to everything from education, healthcare and work, to design, relationships and politics. An essential and inspiring read for everyone interested in our collective future.

Making the Most of Our Longer Lives

Bolder

In the tradition of such trailblazing books as No Logo and The Tipping Point, 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. We live in a world where speed rules and everyone is under pressure to go faster. But when speed is king, anyone or anything that gets in our way, that slows us down, becomes an enemy. 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. 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. 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. He examines how we can continue to live productive lives by embracing the tenets of the slow movement. A challenging take on the cult of speed, as well as a corrective look at how we can approach our lives with new understanding, In Praise of Slow uncovers a movement whose time has come.

How a Worldwide Movement Is Challenging the Cult of Speed

This incisive but leisurely exploration of the emerging paradigm of slowness in the face of today's cult of speed argues that "slower is better."

How A Worldwide Movement Is Challenging the Cult of Speed

Best known for introducing the world to the slow movement, the international best-selling author of In Praise of Slowness turns his focus to problem solving, demonstrating how taking our time with modern decisions will pay off long-term. 40,000 first printing.

The Slow Fix

This selection from award-winning journalist Carl Honore’s In Praise of Slowness introduces us to people all over the world who are reclaiming their time and slowing down the pace—and living happier, more productive, and healthier lives as a result. A slow revolution is taking place. This is a modern revolution, championed by cell-phone using, emailing lovers of sanity. The slow philosophy can be summed up in a single word: balance. People are discovering energy and efficiency where you may have least expected—in slowing down. In The Beauty of Slowing Down rehabilitated speedaholic Carl Honore presents an engaging and entertaining exploration of a movement whose moment has finally come.

A HarperOne Select

The Beauty of Slowing Down

From the bestselling author of In Praise of Slow comes a fascinating and urgent look at childhood today and how we are raising a generation of overprogrammed, overachieving, exhausted children. For generations of children, growing up was a pretty simple business: you went to school for a few hours a day, you dabbled in hobbies and sports, and the rest of the time you played. Or maybe you just day-dreamed. Carl Honoré explains how our modern approach to children is backfiring: our kids are fatter, more myopic, more injured, more depressed and more medicated than any previous generation. By using children as a way to relive our own lives, or as a way to make up for our personal shortcomings, we have destroyed the magic and innocence of childhood. Under Pressure is not a parenting manual but a call to action; we must do better for our children. Using fascinating anecdotes about obsessive parents (including one about the father of a tennis player who drugged all his child’s opponents), solid research and personal insight, Honoré explains the over-parenting phenomenon, dispels myths and rallies for change in clear and persuasive prose. Topics explored include the use of technology as babysitting, how enrolling children in hours of extracurriculars every week can do more harm than good and how we underestimate the resilience of our children at the expense of their freedom.

Putting the Child Back in Childhood

Under Pressure

This is a free extract taken from the full version of THE SLOW FIX by Carl Honoré. What do we do when things go wrong in a fast world? Many of us go for the quick fix that delays the problem rather than solving it. To make real progress we need real solutions – we need to take time for THE SLOW FIX.

The Slow Fix: Why Quick Fixes Don’t Work (extract)

This selection from Carl Honore’s Under Pressure explores the history of childhood, including social trends and cultural movements that have contributed to the current practice of hyperparenting. In How Adults Are Ruining Childhood bestselling author Carl Honore explores the contradictions inherent in modern parenting. We want children to strive for high-achieving adulthood while also enjoying a childhood full of joy and free of danger. We tell our children to “grow up” and then bristle when they do. We expect them to ful?ll our dreams and yet remain true to themselves. The common thread, of course, is that through the ages children have never chosen their own childhood. Adults have always called the tune. Today it seems to be more about the adults than ever.

How Adults Are Hijacking Childhood

A revealing portrait of how families are struggling to cope with the changing world of parenting and childhood, plus new solutions The parent screaming from the touchline at an eight-year-old to make an overlapping run; the pregnant mother playing Mozart to her unborn baby; the rigid schedule for babies, which develops into an agenda of activities for a young child - all these are familiar instances of hyper-parenting. With the pressure growing all the time for children to get into the best schools and universities, or to develop their nascent talents and become the next Tiger Woods or Williams sister, it has never been more difficult to be a child. In Carl Honore's brilliant follow-up to IN PRAISE OF SLOW he makes an impassioned call for parents and teachers to allow children to grow up at a slower rate. He takes us on a journey round the world in search of a new formula for parenting and childhood. He talks to a range of experts and sifts through the latest research to find what problems parents, teachers and children face, and to seek out the best solutions. Honore shows how 'slow parenting' will benefit both the child and the parents, and ensure that we create happier children and calmer parents.

Rescuing Our Children From The Culture Of Hyper-Parenting

What do we do when things go wrong in a fast world? Many of us go for the quick fix that delays the problem rather than solving it. To make real progress we need real solutions – we need to take time for THE SLOW FIX.

Carl Honore

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