In Praise of Slowness
By Carl Honoré
HarperSanFrancisco, $24.95
256 pages, ISBN 006054578X

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REVIEW BY ALISON HOOD

Journalist Carl Honoré, a self-confessed speedaholic, has, thankfully, downshifted enough to write In Praise of Slowness. A call for perspective and balance, rather than a rant against speed, the book examines how our world came to be so frenetic and how this pace affects us. It also explores alternative lifestyles, especially the Slow Movement, that are gaining healthful ground.

Our speedy, technological modern age negatively affects our minds, bodies and spirits. The global mantra to do more, faster, has dangerously homogenized our life rhythms—we eat, sleep, work, play at an ever breathless pace. Honoré, when he encounters a newspaper article, "The One-Minute Bedtime Story," realizes, "My life has turned into an exercise in hurry. . . . I am Scrooge with a stopwatch . . . . And I am not alone."

This skillful blend of investigative reportage, history and reflection on time and our relationship to it makes In Praise of Slowness a book whose arrival couldn't be, well, better timed.