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Product Description
Product Description
In the age of Oprah, Dr. Phil, and countless other self-help disciplinarians, indulging in any kind of pleasurable pastime is on the brink of extinction. But it's not too late to revive those lost pleasures that make life worth living. The Hedonism Handbook can help put the three-martini lunch, the baguette with real butter, the deep tan, the unfiltered cigarette, or the simple act of lying in a hammock under the stars back within our grasp. A tongue-in-cheek, satirical guide to the "good" life, The Hedonism Handbook will help us reclaim it all. With his characteristic wit, author Michael Flocker combines humorous reviews of historical excesses, suggestions for everyday indulgences, lists of hedonistic icons with famous quotes and earnest warnings about the perils of structured living. Made up of ten worldly wise chapters arranged to form a journey for the reader-a path from the straight-and-narrow into wide-open fields of frivolity-The Hedonism Handbook will help readers master the lost arts of leisure and pleasure. It provides an entertaining, yet (if you're not careful), life-changing read.
About the Author
Michael Flocker has lived at various times amid the bright lights of Berlin, the fabulous chaos of New York, and the hazy dream of Los Angeles. His colourful career path has ushered him in and out of the worlds of fashion, film television and travel writing. The author of the bestselling The Metrosexual Guide to Style, he now lives in New York City.
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First Sentence
IN ORDER TO GRASP THE TRUE MEANING OF HEDONISM, IT IS necessary to travel back in time to ancient Greece where the concept was first defined. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
IN ORDER TO GRASP THE TRUE MEANING OF HEDONISM, IT IS necessary to travel back in time to ancient Greece where the concept was first defined. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Of course this handbook is superficially appealing - hedonism, bohemianism, licentiousness all sound like terribly cool things to aspire to. And this book is well-designed and slickly-packaged into a tempting little impulse purchase at the bookshop counter, or as a gift for a friend... But this is Amazon, and we're infored buyers here! A few moments' thought reveal this book to be more a triumph of marketing than real hedonism:
1. Would Casanoa or Oscar Wilde need to buy a book to be told how to find pleasure and how to relax? No! That's much too dictatorial an approach for true hedonis. Pleasure and leisure are about what make *you* happy, and you don't need to be told what you find enjoyable.
2. This book is incredibly poorly written - it's clearly a rush-job for the cash. The opening history section is just a collection of superficial and often-false stereotypes about classical cultures, with Epicureanism entirely misrepresented, the fall of the Roman epire so siplified as to be laughable, and utter untruths about Edwardian ladies and piercings. (Ask a gender historian: they didn't!)
3. You could find most of the quotations that make up much of this book with a few seconds on a search engine. That's the real leisurely way of doing it!
The book's overall message about ours being a pleasure-phobic society, obsessed with work and achievement and losing sight about what really matters in life? Utterly correct. But 'The Hedonism Handbook' is just too fun and flip to make you think deeply enough about how to *really* change your life for the better. Be a real hedonist: spend your money on a bottle of wine, not this book!
1. Would Casanoa or Oscar Wilde need to buy a book to be told how to find pleasure and how to relax? No! That's much too dictatorial an approach for true hedonis. Pleasure and leisure are about what make *you* happy, and you don't need to be told what you find enjoyable.
2. This book is incredibly poorly written - it's clearly a rush-job for the cash. The opening history section is just a collection of superficial and often-false stereotypes about classical cultures, with Epicureanism entirely misrepresented, the fall of the Roman epire so siplified as to be laughable, and utter untruths about Edwardian ladies and piercings. (Ask a gender historian: they didn't!)
3. You could find most of the quotations that make up much of this book with a few seconds on a search engine. That's the real leisurely way of doing it!
The book's overall message about ours being a pleasure-phobic society, obsessed with work and achievement and losing sight about what really matters in life? Utterly correct. But 'The Hedonism Handbook' is just too fun and flip to make you think deeply enough about how to *really* change your life for the better. Be a real hedonist: spend your money on a bottle of wine, not this book!
Format:Paperback
You don't have to agree with it,but you must do yourself a favour and read this book before you lay down on your deathbed.I'll be passing this book on to my teenage sons as required reading.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It's fun and yet salient.
Rather U.S centric, but great for the long train ride home from the office.
Others will wonder what you are laughing at, and then you can show them the cover.
Rather U.S centric, but great for the long train ride home from the office.
Others will wonder what you are laughing at, and then you can show them the cover.
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