also read In Private Life ( )

This was a bit erudite..... and I was really just bored....... I'm not sure, but to me, the author sounded like an elitist from another era..... ( )

Holland has a nice light touch with essays. I think they are probably better read, however, in a periodical than in a book. At any rate, I found I could only read one at a sitting, and it was very easy to forget to pick up the book to read the next one!

This is a great "bathroom" book, or a nice addition to the guest room bookcase. ( )

The subtitle of this book hooked me in like a bigmouth bass: "In Defense of Naps, Bacon, Martinis, Profanity, and Other Indulgences" Other pleasures covered by Ms. Holland include bare feet, coffee, staying in, and undressing (for comfort, not sex -- think flannel bathrobe).

I have to quote a passage from her piece on "Happy Hour." If it doesn't make you want to bolt from your office chair and head for the nearest watering hole, I'm sorry for everyone involved:

"For the perfect happy hour, it should be summer, blistering hot, the street clogged with ill-tempered rush-hour traffic and the melting asphalt soft underfoot. Our workday should have been frantic but ultimately successful. After the glare outside, the bar should be almost pitch dark, icily air conditioned and smell of black leather banquettes, and we should be meeting someone there . . . Then, knees touching, neck muscles relaxing, brow drying in the cold dry air, we should drink. Certain things were put upon the earth for our enjoyment, and it's wasteful and wicked to contemn them."

Bravo, Ms. Holland. ( )

Work a pleasure? Well, yeah, sometimes it is. Many things to learn in here. Sagacious and funny. ( )