Biblioasis

The Idler's Glossary
[978189723146]

$12.95

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ISBN 978-1-897231-46-3 | Joshua Glenn, Mark Kingwell & Seth | The Idler's Glossary | Cultural Criticism | $12.95

"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. Mark Kingwell's introductory essay offers a playful defence of the idler as homo superior, while Joshua Glenn's glossary playfully explores the etymology and history of hundreds of idler-specific terms and phrases, while offering both a corrective to popular misconceptions about idling and a foundation for a new mode of thinking about working and not working.

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 their daily lives.

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation because they have not read this book. As witty, learned and revolutionary as a conversation in a 19th-century coffee house. -- Matthew De Abaitua, editor at large of The Idler.

The Idler's Glossary condenses so many ideas into its unassuming form that it may well be explosive if exposed to direct sunlight. Several generations of aspiring liggers, cadgers, dossers and goldbrickers will derive inspiration, intellectual sustenance, and suggestions for further reading from its pages, and Joshua Glenn should be prepared to find himself henceforth very unpopular with Calvinists and timekeepers everywhere. -- Luc Sante, author of Low Life, Evidence, The Factory of Facts, and, most recently, Kill All Your Darlings: Pieces 1990-2005.

The Idler's Glossary is wonderful! I opened it, set it over my eyes, and took a delightful two-hour nap. Thank you so much. -- Mark Frauenfelder, founder of BoingBoing.net.

This product was added to our catalog on Monday 06 October, 2008.