[.ca] Endangered Pleasures: In Defense of Naps, Bacon, ... (ISBN 0316370576)

From Amazon.com:
First cigars and gin topped the list. Then red meat, Cadillacs, coffee with caffeine, and sleeping late all began to edge toward extinction. Barbara Holland makes an impassioned defense of life's little pleasures in a book that will entertain diehard sinners, comfort the secretly licentious, and encourage those who just need a little nudge to abandon jogging and no-fat salad dressing.

Temptation Well-Remembered and Written in "Pleasures.":
In "Driving Beltless," one of 67 essays forming "Endangered Pleasures," author/temptress Barbara Holland writes that driving without seat belts, once considered "a basic civil right," now "takes its place with Eve's apple among the heady stolen pleasures." Hidden among the summer shade trees of her Bluemont, VA home, Holland writes as a modern day Eve chronicling hidden, missing pleasures in a nostalgic, suburban Eden. Her curmudgonous "Wasn't The Grass Greener" finds her post-expulsion, wistfully remembering telegrams, clotheslines, radiators and tangible, fading societal remnants. Here she praises seasonal, small, slightly sinful luxuries readily available if occassionally politically incorrect. Sensuality rules "Endangered Pleasures" in taste (coffee, martinis, even cigarettes), touch (bare feet, naked bodies in shower, bath and bed, wearing fur in an apologetic essay) sound (songs of youth, whistling, profanity), and above all, sight ( July 4, Christmas, books and morining paper, emotional blankets covering the four seasons, travel modes and motivations). Holland also indulges in slight sins of lust (morning sex), gluttony (justifications of the day's three meals), schadenfreude (her section on disasters and crowd behavior after the Phillies' 1980 World Series win) and supposed sloth (her defense of working and not working, and of gardening as a form of work, are alone worth the book price). Holland also understands small, measurable triumphs of early childhood ("the first 10 or 12 years are just one triumph after another") early adulthood ("We studied for the career of being adults...we thought we had to have opinions on everything.")and parenthood ("Having a child around is more fun than being one, since we're free to leave the small world for the large one whenever we get bored.") Some Holland-praised pleasures became unpopular for understandable, if not completely agreeable, reasons. But she correctly states many benign indulgences fell to what author Robert Ringer called "absolute morality," a governmental/societal/Puritanical mindset distrusting and discouraging pleasure as immoral and unfair while praising pain and self-denial as noble and necessary. Authors like Barbara Holland and books like "Endangered Pleasures" remind us life is too short to take too seriously or studiously, or to deny self without greater purpose. Like chocolate fudge cake, "Endangered Pleasures" should be enjoyed rarely in small slices, but enjoyed to its fullest nonetheless.

Simple Pleasures; Your Day is Cram-Packed with Them!:
As I read this book, I imagined all the self-righteous spoilsports in the world clucking and shaking their heads. "Drinking? Smoking? Eating? How sad that anyone would like such things!" Meanwhile, they count their carbs and powerwalk their way to self-delusion. This is a great book to make you realize that life is for living and we weren't put on this earth just to worry. Real pleasures are simple and cheap and too easily overlooked. Fancy clothes, comfortable clothes, getting up early, staying up late, even going to an office, there is a lot of enjoyment in each and every day, if you just take the time to notice. Enjoy yourself! This book gives you all the permission you need.

One of my all time favorites:
Ms. Holland is one of my favorite authors and this is my favorite of her books. This is one to treasure, to reread when life is looking particularly dreary. In "Endangered Pleasures" Ms. Holland looks at many of the things we've given up on the advice of the government, our doctors and other do-gooders. Bacon (yum), naps, calling out sick, cursing, all the things we're not supposed to do or enjoy because they're bad for our health, the economy, the nation. Read this on the bus, you'll get a seat to yourself because other riders will move away from you because you're laughing outloud.

Justifies your bad habits and downfalls...:
This book was so good to read--Barbara Holland gives a 1-3 page defense of several habits that are generally looked at in a negative light. She defends barefeet, sleeping in, unemployment, cussing someone out, gambling, etc. It was such a pleasure to read--so many good quotes inside. A nice short read that will put a smile on your face.

Admit it! WE ALL HAVE SUCH VICES!:
Anyone that enjoys walking bare-footed, happy hour, spending money, undressing, the joys of travel, the occasional use of a "bad" word, Christmas, dogs and cats, and books, among other things, gets a "thumbs up" from me. You'd be hard-pressed not to like this book.