For the love of it

the long version

For the Love of It is the story not only of the intimate struggle between Wayne Booth and his cello but also of the larger struggle between a society obsessed with success and payoff and individuals who choose challenging hobbies that yield no payoff except the love of it. This fundamental opposition leads Booth into diverse meditations on how amateuring relates to all other loves and pleasures. In his celebration of how the amateur's laboring can blossom, he thus joins a long line of thinkers who have puzzled over the meanings of "fun," "work," and "love."