Embracing the Ordinary: Lessons From the Champions of Everyday Life - Tapa blanda

'A convincing argument for the beauty of the seemingly banal... This is a book of big ideas about small things... Foley's writing is funny and accessible, his ability to rain ordinariness on such lofty topics as love, sex and religion is insightful and amusing' Scotsman

'Foley always writes beguilingly... when he hits his stride, his hymns of praise to everyday things really do restore our sense of wonder and delight' --Readers Digest
'In recession-chastened, soddenly staycationing Britain, Foley may well have devised a new bestseller format: a how-to book offering a way of escape without leaving prison. It's like a highbrow version of the ''Keep Calm and Carry on'' franchise...[a] lovely book' Stuart Jeffries, Guardian
Praise for THE AGE OF ABSURDITY:

'Reading Michael Foley's THE AGE OF ABSURDITY. I must be the last person in the world to read this but I'm glad I finally have, as it is fascinating. It looks at the quest for happiness and how we are getting it all wrong' Jeremy Vine, Sunday Telegraph

'Genuinely funny, sharp, truthful and intelligent . . . striking a blow for the value of ordinariness' Times Literary Supplement

'Irresistible narrative with the sort of irreverent exuberance that carries all before it' Guardian

'Pungent, witty, perceptive . . . like Larkin, only sharper, funnier and more cynical' Irish Times

'Not the usual cleverclogs claptrap. Foley delivers well-judged wisdom'
Oliver James

'Achingly funny and wise . . . vastly entertaining' Daily Mail

'Michael Foley's entertaining, intelligent book may just help you get over yourself . . . Absurdly readable' Observer

'Insightful and entertaining . . . wickedly sceptical' --Irish Examiner

Praise for THE AGE OF ABSURDITY:

'Reading Michael Foley's THE AGE OF ABSURDITY. I must be the last person in the world to read this but I'm glad I finally have, as it is fascinating. It looks at the quest for happiness and how we are getting it all wrong' Jeremy Vine, Sunday Telegraph

'Genuinely funny, sharp, truthful and intelligent . . . striking a blow for the value of ordinariness' Times Literary Supplement

'Irresistible narrative with the sort of irreverent exuberance that carries all before it' Guardian

'Pungent, witty, perceptive . . . like Larkin, only sharper, funnier and more cynical' Irish Times

'Not the usual cleverclogs claptrap. Foley delivers well-judged wisdom'
Oliver James

'Achingly funny and wise . . . vastly entertaining' Daily Mail

'Michael Foley's entertaining, intelligent book may just help you get over yourself . . . Absurdly readable' Observer

'Insightful and entertaining . . . wickedly sceptical' --Irish Examiner

'A wise, funny, erudite book about enjoying everyday life. The fiction of Joyce and Proust, along with other writers and artists who delight in the daily routine, anchors Foley's celebration of the here and now' --Independent

'Thirty years ago, Michael Foley had an epiphany. As he emerged from jury service, the street outside the court became ''illuminated, transfigured, a portal to infinite being''. Everything became sublime, especially the menu at the caff advertising ''egg's, sausage's and tomato's''. ''Those misplaced apostrophes tore at my heart like orphan children, blessed like the first timid snowdrops of February, sparkled like a dusting of precious stones. I wanted to rush in and embrace the illiterate proprietor. To die of a heart attack from one of his fry-ups would surely be the ideal way to go to Heaven.'' Thankfully he didn't, otherwise we wouldn't have this lovely book' --Guardian

Here s a nice idea: why not learn to love the ordinary things in life? Michael Foley tells us about some people who have done just that... It s very heartening, --i (Independent)

'Wise, erudite, funny ... I will relish this book not just for its deftly opportunistic mining of novels and tracts and movies to shore up its premises, but for lyrical flights into the poetry of dailyness ... If they ever hand out golds for infectious delight in quotidian events, Foley should mount the podium.' --Boyd Tonkin, Literary Editor, Independent

A wise, funny, erudite book about enjoying everyday life. The fiction of Joyce and Proust, along with other writers and artists who delight in the daily routine, anchors Foley s celebration of the here and now --i (Independent)

It has always been difficult to appreciate everyday life, often devalued as dreary, banal and burdensome, and never more so than in a culture besotted with fantasy, celebrity and glamour. Yet many writers, artists, film-makers and photographers have celebrated the ordinary life around them, and many philosophers, anthropologists, psychologists and neuroscientists have offered insights into the difficulties and rewards of paying attention to the here and now. With characteristic wit and earthiness, Michael Foley - author of the bestselling The Age of Absurdity- draws on the work of these artists and thinkers, and encourages us to delight in the complexities of everyday psychopathology. With astute observation, Foley brings fresh insights to such things as the banality of everyday speech, the madness and weirdness of snobbery, love and sex, and the strangeness of everyday objects and the everyday environment, such as the office. It is all more fascinating, comical and mysterious than you think.