Book Review: Slow Is Beautiful By Cecile Andrews.

Because we were away this weekend, I had some free time to work on reading book I had been wanting to read for quite a while. The book is “Slow is Beautiful – New Visions of Community, Leisure and Joie De Vivre” by Cecile Andrews and I recommend it to anyone who thinks that the high-paced fast-moving community of today is only going to end in one giant burnout. Although I do need to slow down a little more often, it is something I am working on and trying to be more aware of in my life, and reading books such as this one help me to remember what it is I am supposed to be doing.

The slow movement is not so much a “slow down when driving” thing as a “slow down when going through life” thing. Cecile Andrews talks about an experience with an SUV driver screaming and throwing raisins at someone because the person was taking too much time to park their car…and realized that our community has turned on itself all in the name of speed, money, status and greed. I tend to agree. The have’s are having more and more while the have not’s are losing even more ground. People are buying McMansion’s so their neighbors and families will think that they are rich, corporations are giving multi-million dollar bonuses to executives who fail while cutting bonuses and health care for the general employee population. Instead of helping each other out, it seems that everyone is out for themselves…and speeding along happily towards their demise. Not stopping to play with their kids, take a look at nature, enjoy a sunset…just gotta keep buying, consuming, earning, stealing, DOING. As long as they are busy, it is harder to see how unhappy they really are.

As we are moving towards trying to live a simpler life (by one day leaving Los Angeles), reading these books are important because I think they keep me grounded and keep me from falling into the trap of buy, consume, spend, buy, consume, spend. Living in L.A. it is very easy to see what every one else has and find yourself longing for it as well; thus it is very important to keep yourself grounded.

Although I normally get all my books from the library (to both reduce waste and save money), I had some gift cards I had received to some book stores that I had to use. When I buy books, I always buy books I will refer to again and again, as I only read fiction once…and then it sits on the shelf. If you can get it from the library, please do so, but definitely take a look at this book. If you are a book shopper, you can get it anywhere, including Amazon, where The Good Human gets a few cents if you buy it through this link:

Slow Is Beautiful: New Visions of Community, Leisure And Joie De Vivre

This helps keep things running around here. If you are finding yourself falling into the trap of consumerism and a high-speed life and are looking for tips on how to slow down, I really recommend this book.

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