The horizontal life is possible in many places and not necessarily dependent upon the availability of a couch or a bed. One can lie on the beach or swim on one's back and be transported to a comfy cloud. Certain places in nature are as if made for the body, like the hollow of a rock that seems perfectly fit for a good cuddle. Lying is fundamentally different than standing, walking, or sitting even if the gradations between sitting and lying pass unnoticeably into one another. The bed and its diverse variations provide the framework for periodic, daily phases of rest, sleep, and a multiplicity of other activities that are preferably or only occasionally performed in bed.

This entertaining book is dedicated to lying in its many aspects. It approaches the horizontal life from historical, cultural anthropological, formal, physiological as well as psychological perspectives. The numerous examples, stories, and illustrations from different eras and cultures lay bare a veritable culture of lying, an art. In this book we discover it anew and along the way we begin to contemplate our spatial existence.

The German edition of this book will be published by Galiani - Kiepenheuer & Witsch in 2012. All rights lie with the publisher, but foreign rights enquiries are welcome.