Author: Ernie J. Zelinski

Publisher: Ten Speed Press; 2 edition

Pub. in: October, 2003

ISBN: 1580085520

Pages: 224

Measurements: 9.8 x 6.6 x 0.8 inches

Origin of product: USA

Order code: BA01262

Other information: ISBN-13: 978-1580085526

This is primarily an inspirational book on living life to the fullest and not a guidebook for lazy people on how to live off the system. Throughout the latest edition of The Joy of Not Working, and in a special section at the end, the author has included numerous letters from readers all over the world who have taken this book to heart and improved their lives immensely. You can also read other letters about the book and actually download an E-book with the equivalent of two chapters of the book on The Joy of Not Working Website - www.thejoyofnotworking.com - but you will have to buy the actual book from Amazon or elsewhere since Zelinski does not sell it on his interesting and content-rich website.

Above all, The Joy of Not Working is for winners and not whiners. Ernie Zelinski stresses that a day lived to its fullest is worth far more than any money you could hope to earn by sacrificing it. He is also a proponent of the invaluable advice that originated with Confucius: Find a calling you love and you will never work a day in your life.

I take exception to the two or three recent negative reviewers of this book who say things like "Should Be Titled 'How to Live In Poverty Forever.' " These negative readers have obviously missed the whole point of The Joy of Not Working. It was never meant to be a book to show everyone in this world how not to work and still have a comfortable lifestyle.

How the negative reviewers of this book can expect that it should tell them how to pay their health care and plan out their financial lives for them is beyond me. One of the negative reviewers even goes so far as to deride Zelinski for giving an example in his book of a man who lives on $500 a month and is one of the happiest people he knows. Yet this negative reviewer cites the book Your Money or Your Life as a much better book. Interestingly enough, the late Joe Dominguez, one of the co-authors, lived happily in Seattle on less than $500 a month and, as Zelinski, maintained that financial independence is simply having more money come in that goes out.

The subtitle of The Joy of Not Working states that it is "A book for the retired, unemployed, and overworked." Zelinski should have clarified that this book is not for the negative people of this world. Michel de Montaigne stated: "Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of soul, impossible." The Joy of Not Working will help many people get over their poverty of goods and their poverty in the workplace, but it will not help the negative people get over their poverty of soul. No book or amount of money can do this.

I lost my passion for conventional work and the typical workplace many years ago. The Joy of Not Working reinforced my strong beliefs that there are many ways to combat emptiness in life and none of them involve working long and hard hours at a job you don't like all that much. Zelinski also reinforced my belief that the work ethic taken to extremes is a terrible mistake. It is promoted most vehemently by employers who either want to exploit you or by pathetic workaholics who are trying to justify why they work so many hours and have no real life.

No doubt as it has already, The Joy of Not Working will help tens of thousands of people around the world escape the insanity of the extreme work ethic and reclaim their creativity and their lives. At the same time, this book will show people how to find success, prosperity, and happiness on their own terms.

(From quoting Erich Sachs, USA)

Better with The Complete Tightwad Gazette :

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