Procrastination - just about everyone has struggled with it. This charming, highly readable book by an internationally recognised Stanford philosopher offers a new outlook: instead of focusing on your deficits, recognise the myriad things that you do accomplish while avoiding ''the important project.'' Laced with stealth advice that you can put to use, it's funny, wise, and useful to boot. John Perry's insights and laugh-out-loud humour bring to mind Thurber, Wodehouse, and Harry Frankfort's On Bullshit. This very readable book educates, entertains, and illuminates a universal subject. Procrastinators will be relieved to learn that actually you can accomplish quite a lot while procrastinating. In fact, the book itself is the result of Perry avoiding grading papers, refereeing academic proposals, and reviewing dissertation drafts. It also has a practical side, offering up advice that readers can put to use. Who knew that placing ''Learn Chinese'' at the top of your to-do list would inspire you to get the less monumental tasks below it done? Witty, wise, and beautifully written, ''The Art of Procrastination'' will make the perfect gift for the untold number of lollygaggers out there.