Borders bookshops are a great place to escape – it feels like walking into a home or more accurately where a group of people have made it their temporary home. The smell of coffee and toasted bread – the students trying to find textooks and an odd variety of people who are hidden in corners reading like their life depends on it. I wander in determined not to buy anything but fail. The strength of the English pound make it all feel like a bargain.

My first read  comes with the title  The Importance of Being Lazy by a philosopher Al Gini – his real name I think!! Philosophers have gone popular these days to make money from the likes of me. Its a great book with its subtitle In Praise of Play, Leisure and Vacations ( Routledge New York 2005). The thesis? We all know how to work bu not how to play. We need time off – doing nothing is a fundamental human necessity. It is a witty breezy tour of our workaholic society where we have become osbssessed with the tasks of life.

This speaks to me at the beginning of three months sabbatical leave where time is my gift! I find the prospect both terrifying and liberating in same measure. We are in for interesting times……watch this space and thanks Al for a great read!!