The Art of the Wasted Day, by Patricia Hampl

I think the author would approve: I finished the second half of this book on the plane to a Hawaiian vacation, during which I intend to stare at the ocean, do as much reading as possible, and do very little else. A master of the essay, Hampl's latest is more a collection of connected essays than a nonfiction narrative, making it easy to dip into and out of at will. Having (recently?) lost her husband and love of her life, Hampl visits the former abodes of four mavens of leisure, intellectuals who devoted their lives to reading, writing, and thinking, not for monetary gain or celebrity, but for the sheer pleasure of it. We visit Wales and the restored estate of the "Ladies of Llangollen," who lived a life of retirement in the 18th and 19th Centuries; then to the Czech Republic and the monastery at which Gregor Mendel did his meticulous genetic work; and finally to rural France, to visit the king of leisure and inventor of the essay himself, Michel Montaigne.

Through these essays run two threads: that of Hampl's grief over the end of her happy marriage and that of her admiration for Montaigne's boldness in retiring from civic and social duty to live a life of the mind. As most essays do, these wander, as if to echo the winding Mississippi down which she and her husband loved to travel. And towards the end, we are privy to what could almost amount to a seminar on writing the essay, even on writing in general. Anyone looking to publish, or simply work on writing as a personal hobby, would be well-served by reading this book. And I certainly feel better about lazy vacations such as this, where nothing more gets done than to sit, and read, and think.

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