In Praise of Slow: How a Worldwide Movement is Challenging the Cult of Speed

Carl Honoré isn’t the first author to investigate the phenomenon of slow living, but his book In Praise of Slow: How a Worldwide Movement is Challenging the Cult of Speed (Vintage Canada) is the most comprehensive explanation of recent attention to slowing down. Slow food embraces traditional cooking, slow sex turns to Tantric Buddhism, slow cities reduce traffic and waste and promote quiet, locally owned businesses. Businessmen are rediscovering the joys of napping, and orchestras the joys of crawling through familiar symphonies. Honoré doesn’t advocate a completely slow life, and he is careful to distance himself from what he calls the “flaky relics from the hippie era.” Going slow is a way to be more efficient and productive in the fast parts of life, and he recommends slow living to yuppies who have lost the meaning of life. Nevertheless, one can be pleased to see the value of work and productivity being debated, and to know that some people are stopping to smell the Bach.