A review by veronicachp
In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed by Carl Honore
informative
relaxing
medium-paced
3.5
3.5 stars, enjoyed it and it will stick with me, would recommend, but probably won't reread.
The good: I'm a long time supporter of the slow movement, and I enjoyed reading about the various ways we can take a step back from a frantic life and regain some poise. I earmarked a lot of quotes and thoughts in the book that really resonated with me, and it is overall an engaging and enjoyable read. I preferred the parts where he waxes poetic about the slow lifestyle over the parts that are just statistics and facts, but there's a pretty good balance between the two.
The less good: My edition of the book was printed almost 20 years ago, in 2005, and parts of it are a bit dated and out of touch by 2023 standards. The chapter on work, particularly, feels...upper class. Some of his suggestions, like "What's a pay cut compared to job happiness?" and setting your own work hours, budgeting time into your work day for meditation and small naps just feel somewhat out of touch with the actual worker class. He includes lots of quotes from executives and businessmen/women about how slowing down has helped them so much, but none from, say, maids or shop cashiers. The chapters also get a bit repetitive and formulaic, but are still overall engaging.
The bad: Also dated, the author's mild but persistent fatphobia and references to very 2000s diet culture and how TV makes people fat and lazy and therefore morally bad. This was really the one sour note of the book for me, and while I know it was typical of the time the book was written, it's still off putting
The good: I'm a long time supporter of the slow movement, and I enjoyed reading about the various ways we can take a step back from a frantic life and regain some poise. I earmarked a lot of quotes and thoughts in the book that really resonated with me, and it is overall an engaging and enjoyable read. I preferred the parts where he waxes poetic about the slow lifestyle over the parts that are just statistics and facts, but there's a pretty good balance between the two.
The less good: My edition of the book was printed almost 20 years ago, in 2005, and parts of it are a bit dated and out of touch by 2023 standards. The chapter on work, particularly, feels...upper class. Some of his suggestions, like "What's a pay cut compared to job happiness?" and setting your own work hours, budgeting time into your work day for meditation and small naps just feel somewhat out of touch with the actual worker class. He includes lots of quotes from executives and businessmen/women about how slowing down has helped them so much, but none from, say, maids or shop cashiers. The chapters also get a bit repetitive and formulaic, but are still overall engaging.
The bad: Also dated, the author's mild but persistent fatphobia and references to very 2000s diet culture and how TV makes people fat and lazy and therefore morally bad. This was really the one sour note of the book for me, and while I know it was typical of the time the book was written, it's still off putting
Content Warnings
Minor: Fatphobia