The Art of Lying Down

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"A strange and dreamy voice . . . , like an Italo Calvino short story, curiously translated from some lost, obscure language." --Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, LoveAn utterly charming study of the history of lying down--which is more complicated than you might think We spend a good third of our lives lying down: sleeping, dreaming, making love, thinking, reading, and getting well. Bernd Brunner's ode to lying down is a rich exploration of cultural history and an entertaining collection of tales, ranging from the history of the mattress to the "slow living movement" to Stone Age repose--when people did not sleep lying down--and beyond. He approaches the horizontal state from a number of directions, but never loses his keen sense for the odd or unusual detail. Far from being a pose of passivity or laziness, lying down can be a protest, a chance to gather thoughts or change your point of view--the other side to our...