I’ve always been lazy. Not a morning person. Not really motivated by money or stuff. I LOVE sleeping. If I don’t feel like doing something, I just won’t.

And, for better or worse, I’m reading a book that makes me feel really justified to be that way. It’s my right, damn it!. I’m a dreamer, a thinker. That takes time! Lots and lots of unstructured, uncommitted time. Which is, unfortunately, rather at odds with the modern world (as I know it, anyway). I’ve never really fit into the career-driven landscape I’m surrounded by. It’s always been really important to me that my work and life are separate. That I leave the office at a reasonable hour and I leave my work at the office.

As my life looks less and less how I’d like it, How to Be Idle: A Loafer’s Manifesto is both exactly what I need and the kind of encouragement that makes everything harder. It’s a very fun read, written by Tom Hodgkinson, the founding editor of The Idler (notice a theme?), that extols the virtues of the hangover, the three-martini lunch, and the sick day, among other things. And if you’re not afraid of getting in a bad mood about all the work you really should be doing and feeling entitled to spending the entire day in bed, I definitely recommend it. Come to think of it, if you are, maybe you should read it, too. It’s very persuasive, and the world would be a better place, I think, if we were all a little lazier.