Waiting for the Weekend

Name: Waiting for the Weekend
Brand: Blackstone Audiobooks
Availability: InStock
Author: Witold Rybczynski
ISBN: 9781441798176

Author: Witold Rybczynski

Narrator: Wanda McCaddon

Unabridged: 5 hr 26 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Published: 11/15/2011

Categories: Nonfiction, History

Synopsis

We work, Aristotle wrote, in order to have leisure. Today, this is still true. But is the leisure that Aristotle spoke ofthe freedom to do nothingthe same as the leisure we look forward to each weekend? There have always been breaks from the routine of worktaboo days, market days, public festivals, holy dayswe couldnt survive without them. In Waiting for the Weekend, Witold Rybczynski unfolds the history and evolution of leisure time in Western civilization, from Aristotle, through the Middle Ages, to the present. Along the way, he explores how the psychological needs that leisure time seeks to fulfill have changed as the nature of work has changed.

About Witold Rybczynski

Witold Rybczynski has written about architecture for the New York Times, Time, Atlantic, the New Yorker, and Slate, and is the author of the award-winning A Clearing in the Distance. He is the recipient of the National Building Museum’s 2007 Vincent Scully Prize. He lives with his wife in Philadelphia, where he teaches at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Heather

Despite the title, and despite the fact that much of this book tells the story of how the weekend as we know it came into being, Waiting for the Weekend isn’t just about Saturday and Sunday and how they got that way. It also examines larger questions of leisure: what is leisure, anyhow? And how do w......more

Goodreads review by Lori

OK, I found this book a little dry & unengaging. Yet, its slow-moving approach fits the topic of leisure appropriately. And, I don't know where else you'll find some of the cultural history tidbits in this volume. When & how did everyone decide that Saturday/Sunday was the weekend? Good question, bu......more

Goodreads review by Sarah

Nonfiction view at the evolution of our 5-and-2 pattern of days; leisure versus hobbies; reading versus watching tv. The chapter on "Pastimes" was quite interesting. Is leisure time a time to work at play? Or to do nothing, a kind of personal freedom? The book became a little slow during the histori......more

Goodreads review by Alex

Excellent in the Rybczynski way. A thoroughly enjoyable stroll through the topic of how, why and when we spend our leisure time. Although written almost 30 years ago, the points and subtle illuminations are still, and possible more, relevant today. I think that Rybczynski would be happy if one spent......more