What do you think?
Rate this book
Value: What Money Can’t Buy: A Handbook for Practical Hedonism
Since the industrial revolution, when everything ran by clockwork, people have understood how important it is to live in the moment. But over time our world has grown increasingly busy, and we've lost our ability to truly savour each unique experience and the simple pleasures the world has to offer.
Cultural commentator and critic Stephen Bayley seeks to explain what real value it's about taking the time and making the effort to appreciate things, of understanding the permanent charm of modest daily rituals performed with care and feeling. Of caring about appearances and meaning. Of being bold in matters of taste. Of fully understanding the source of lasting pleasure. Of making every encounter with an object or person meaningful.
Value is an elegiac account of what's recently been lost in the digital apocalypse. But also an enthusiastic anticipation of what we can regain in a post-viral, more analogue and more thoughtful world.
Cultural commentator and critic Stephen Bayley seeks to explain what real value it's about taking the time and making the effort to appreciate things, of understanding the permanent charm of modest daily rituals performed with care and feeling. Of caring about appearances and meaning. Of being bold in matters of taste. Of fully understanding the source of lasting pleasure. Of making every encounter with an object or person meaningful.
Value is an elegiac account of what's recently been lost in the digital apocalypse. But also an enthusiastic anticipation of what we can regain in a post-viral, more analogue and more thoughtful world.
- GenresNonfiction
272 pages, Hardcover
Published February 8, 2022
9 people are currently reading
48 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 20, 2025
This book has some of the best metaphors I have ever had the pleasure of sweeping my eyes over. The way the author takes simple, cliche, sayings, and gives them a well needed face wash, is refreshing.
I also learned lots of new words.
I also learned lots of new words.
March 28, 2021
It is hard to fault the premise of this book. We spend a lot of our lives doing low value things. Wouldn't life be better if we focused on things that made us truly happy?
Stephen argues that a great deal of modern life is low value, superficial, convenient, prosaic. Instead we should be surrounding ourselves with art and things which connect us with analog instead of digital. He quotes one example of Microsoft releasing a game which includes the whole world, which Bayley thinks is a terrible shame because it demans the world. We will come back to that one later.
It's a fair point. Who hasn't found themselves sucked in to an internet rabbit hole where time seems to fly by and we don't achieve all that much? So, yes, I can buy into what Bayley is selling.
William Morris said it in one sentence: “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”
Yup, I can buy that.
Then we run into problems with the book. At times it feels like a unstructured rant. Bayley will make a good point but then hop straight into a different point altogether. We should all live like Robinson Crusoe. Peasant living is good. Lemons are better than oranges.
He also contradicts himself. He tells us that analog is better than digital but then praises the i-phone. He rails against women's fashion but tells us to buy good quality men's suits.
A handbook, it most certainly isn't. It's a series of mini essays about the things that Stephen Bayley likes and dislikes. If you happen to agree with him, fine. If you don't you may find yourself scratching your head at times. Apparently we're supposed to carry around a sketch book to draw freehand pictures of architechture. Why? Because that is what he likes. He gets turned on by the engineering of a luxury jet's engines, but hardly mentions the environment.
In the end, this is one man's opinion. He makes some good general points, but it's still one man's opinion. Frankly you can save yourself the price of the book by living by the William Morris quote about beauty and usefulness.
One particular thing bothered me about this book. It started with that microsoft game which so annoyed Stephen because it modelled the entire world. I'm pretty sure that game is Microsoft Flight Simulator - a program which has been modelling a large part of the real world since the 1980s. And while this is a digital program, the experience that we have with it is analog. Ir brings just as much pleasure for those who get into it as Stephen's obessessions with cars or jet engines or architecture.
But Stephen either couldn't see the merits of that program or he didn't want to. Because he was blinkered by "analog good, digital bad" he couldn't see that some digital can also be good, if we use it consciously.
Frankly I'm bored by the paper book vs kindle argument. I am perfectly happy with either or both. It's the writing that matters, not whether it's on a machine, on paper, on papyrus, whatever.
So it's three stars. It has it's moment, it is occasionally thought provoking, but it still feels like a blinkered rant.
Oh, and I read it on kindle. Sorry, Stephen. Go sue me.
Stephen argues that a great deal of modern life is low value, superficial, convenient, prosaic. Instead we should be surrounding ourselves with art and things which connect us with analog instead of digital. He quotes one example of Microsoft releasing a game which includes the whole world, which Bayley thinks is a terrible shame because it demans the world. We will come back to that one later.
It's a fair point. Who hasn't found themselves sucked in to an internet rabbit hole where time seems to fly by and we don't achieve all that much? So, yes, I can buy into what Bayley is selling.
William Morris said it in one sentence: “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”
Yup, I can buy that.
Then we run into problems with the book. At times it feels like a unstructured rant. Bayley will make a good point but then hop straight into a different point altogether. We should all live like Robinson Crusoe. Peasant living is good. Lemons are better than oranges.
He also contradicts himself. He tells us that analog is better than digital but then praises the i-phone. He rails against women's fashion but tells us to buy good quality men's suits.
A handbook, it most certainly isn't. It's a series of mini essays about the things that Stephen Bayley likes and dislikes. If you happen to agree with him, fine. If you don't you may find yourself scratching your head at times. Apparently we're supposed to carry around a sketch book to draw freehand pictures of architechture. Why? Because that is what he likes. He gets turned on by the engineering of a luxury jet's engines, but hardly mentions the environment.
In the end, this is one man's opinion. He makes some good general points, but it's still one man's opinion. Frankly you can save yourself the price of the book by living by the William Morris quote about beauty and usefulness.
One particular thing bothered me about this book. It started with that microsoft game which so annoyed Stephen because it modelled the entire world. I'm pretty sure that game is Microsoft Flight Simulator - a program which has been modelling a large part of the real world since the 1980s. And while this is a digital program, the experience that we have with it is analog. Ir brings just as much pleasure for those who get into it as Stephen's obessessions with cars or jet engines or architecture.
But Stephen either couldn't see the merits of that program or he didn't want to. Because he was blinkered by "analog good, digital bad" he couldn't see that some digital can also be good, if we use it consciously.
Frankly I'm bored by the paper book vs kindle argument. I am perfectly happy with either or both. It's the writing that matters, not whether it's on a machine, on paper, on papyrus, whatever.
So it's three stars. It has it's moment, it is occasionally thought provoking, but it still feels like a blinkered rant.
Oh, and I read it on kindle. Sorry, Stephen. Go sue me.
October 30, 2022
I was hooked by the subtitle of this book ‘What money can’t buy’ but ultimately this is misleading.
I agree with the concept of buying better but lots of this just felt like that kind of minimalism that you can achieve if you’re already rich.
I’m afraid that much of this book just felt like the lockdown musings of a privileged bloke who has spent a lot of time in Tuscany.
Plus now I want a huge white porcelain dish filled with lemons - thanks Stephen !
I agree with the concept of buying better but lots of this just felt like that kind of minimalism that you can achieve if you’re already rich.
I’m afraid that much of this book just felt like the lockdown musings of a privileged bloke who has spent a lot of time in Tuscany.
Plus now I want a huge white porcelain dish filled with lemons - thanks Stephen !
December 10, 2023
This book lacks substance. The topics are brief and have no real conclusions. The title seemingly misleading too. Many quotes and references from artists which lead the reader to nowhere. Bayley incorrectly states that Henry David Thoreau died at aged 46, when in fact, he was 44. There are some great points throughout the book, the author concludes his book stating the conclusion is that there is not one.
While great wealth remains elusive to most of us, time is capital we all possess, although it’s a diminishing asses for everyone. And it’s every individuals privilege to decide how to best spend it.
I’d like the world to preserve mystery, curiosity, fear, accident, discovery, personality, privacy, privilege, idiosyncrasy, choices, bloody mindedness, chance. Mistakes and flaws are so much more interesting than perfection. And perfect knowledge does not exists. Doubt is, in any case, surely more interesting than certainty.
Value is about the pleasure to be had from the ordinary and the everyday. Also appreciating beauty in material things, having an aesthetic view of the world.
Charm is worth cultivating in yourself an encouraging others.
“I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart’s affection, and the truth of imagination” - John Keats
Fashion is one of the most unimportant purposes of them all. It was once neatly described as buying stuff you don’t need with money you don’t have to impress people you don’t like.
Value concerns the beliefs, rather than the rules, which govern behaviour.
The love of living dangerously and a readiness for anything
Charm - it is the ability, as Albert Camus put it, of getting someone to say ‘yes’ without them realising they have been asked a question.
Happiness comes from limiting desires, rather than trying to satisfy them - John Stuart
The conclusion here is that is not one. You just need to keep asking questions. Cultivate the sense. And enjoy the mysterious glory of rat everyday. Because that is all we have have got. And there is huge value in realising it.
While great wealth remains elusive to most of us, time is capital we all possess, although it’s a diminishing asses for everyone. And it’s every individuals privilege to decide how to best spend it.
I’d like the world to preserve mystery, curiosity, fear, accident, discovery, personality, privacy, privilege, idiosyncrasy, choices, bloody mindedness, chance. Mistakes and flaws are so much more interesting than perfection. And perfect knowledge does not exists. Doubt is, in any case, surely more interesting than certainty.
Value is about the pleasure to be had from the ordinary and the everyday. Also appreciating beauty in material things, having an aesthetic view of the world.
Charm is worth cultivating in yourself an encouraging others.
“I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart’s affection, and the truth of imagination” - John Keats
Fashion is one of the most unimportant purposes of them all. It was once neatly described as buying stuff you don’t need with money you don’t have to impress people you don’t like.
Value concerns the beliefs, rather than the rules, which govern behaviour.
The love of living dangerously and a readiness for anything
Charm - it is the ability, as Albert Camus put it, of getting someone to say ‘yes’ without them realising they have been asked a question.
Happiness comes from limiting desires, rather than trying to satisfy them - John Stuart
The conclusion here is that is not one. You just need to keep asking questions. Cultivate the sense. And enjoy the mysterious glory of rat everyday. Because that is all we have have got. And there is huge value in realising it.
July 29, 2021
Finally, a fearless critic! Written during lockdown, this is a collection of musings and anecdotes giving a brief over view of the famous author’s ideas and opinions about current trends in design and fashion. Bayley is wonderfully un-Politically Correct, and freely criticizes and critiques, so refreshing! He is a prolific author and I felt as though this book was way to learn a great deal without having had access to all of his books.
September 27, 2025
While the book does highlight how the way we place value on objects and experiences has changed to favour a quicker and more fast paced approach, delivering us as much as possible as soon as possible, the author's own taste is well snobbish. With most examples not being suitable for convenient for most people beyond a very middle class disposition.
August 11, 2023
An excellent book, with many very sensible ideas about how we can best waste our time on this little planet. You don't need money, you need to know how to appreciate things. Took me a while in between other books, but every chapter I picked up again at was a great nugget of ideas.
October 8, 2021
Delightful and thought provoking. Not so much a handbook or complete guide, but a great starting point on a range of topics. My reading list has expanded, a blessing and a curse...
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews