Customer Reviews

The Joy of Simple Living: Over 1,500 Simple Ways to Make Your Life Easy and -- At Home and at Work

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

"Not only does it give dozens and dozens of suggestions on how to simplify every area of your life, it then goes on to simplifying your office, your desk, your commute, your holidays, vacations and so on. What's more, every chapter is packed with stuff that makes it easy to get through the chapter such as a feature called, How complex can it get?, which is a humorous antidote about someone or something that represents the extreme opposite of simplicity. Other features such as boxes and vignettes are all highly readable. Even though the book is almost five hundred pages, it is actually quite easy to get through. If here and there some of these suggestions represent too much of a leap there are dozens of others that offer great value. I highly recommend this book"

I usually stay away from simplify your life kind of books because I find them to be, well, too simple. This one strikes the right balance. There are lots of ideas in every chapter on how to simplify your life and at the same time, these are concrete ideas, actions you can take that will actually make a difference. Too often I have seen books where authors talk about skipping through the daisies barefooted, or stripping down your wardrobe to the essence, or some other suggestion that I am not going to follow. In the Joy of Simple Living the author seems to be speaking directly to me and addressing the kinds of issues and obstacles that I face on a daily basis. The sprinkling of humor throughout the book makes it all that much easier to read.

The author takes a room-by-room approach to simplifying your house, garage, then backyard, and other aspects your life. The arrangment is very easy to follow. There are many useful charts and checklist. Many experts are cited. There are also end of the chapter summeraries. The sly humor is well appreciated as well. I've told several friends about this.

The Joy of Simple Living is a joy to read. The whole way through, I felt as if the author knew exactly what I was up against and what I needed to do next. At times, it seems as if his writing was directed solely at me. It is spooky! The really great thing about this book is that once you have it you really don't need any other books on simplicity. This one will do it all for you. You can't try to read the whole thing at once it is too big. By focusing on one room of your house at a time or one aspect at a time, however, I think that you can make great strides. The author offers very practical advise in a very straightforward manner. There is so much here that I think this book will last me for years.

I got this book as a gift and at first was a little intimidated by its size, about 480 pages. I though to myself it takes this many words to tell me how to simplify my life? Then, I realized that there were so many topics covered within the book that it all made sense. There are ways to simplify your finances, all the rooms of your home, your office at work, your relationships, even your level of fitness. The author draws on practical proven age old advise as well as offering quite a bit of innovative suggestions I have not seen anyplace else. This blend of the old and the new makes for a most enjoyable read. I would recommend this book to anyone who owns a house and/or has accumulated a lot of stuff over the years.

This is the first book I've seen on the topic that takes a methodical look at how to simplify your life. Rather than offering aphorisms, one-a-day bits of philosophy and other airy-fairy stuff that in the end, add up to anything, this book offers concrete suggestion after concrete suggestion as to how to make things less complex. I got it as a gift, and it turned out to be a very good gift.

This is one of the better books I've picked up in a long time. It is so loaded with tips for simplifying that you could hang onto it for years, and still get value from it. In fact, that's what I intend to do, hang onto it for years. Nowhere else have I read that by attempting to simplify your life too much, you can end up recomplicating it. The first three chapters alone are worth the price of the book but then it gets even more specific and more compelling after that. The chapter on managing your reading helped me enormously. I'm still delving into the chapters on fitness, leisure, and commuting.

I give this book the highest rating because it lays out on a room by room and activity by activity basis how to simplify your life. Like the author says, you can't follow everything in the book, just those things you can do most readily. There are so many suggestions, that anybody could find benefit with this book.

I can make my comments about this very simple- this is a great book that will help anyone. There is so much here you can't help but find some highly relevant tips no matter what kind of complexity you are facing. In particular the section about simplifying your bedroom, your garage, and your commute stand but as "must have" information.

Off all the books out there on the topic of simplicity, this one has to take the cake for the range of ideas offered. There are something like 1,800 in total. Don't let that throw you; as the author states at the outset, the book isn't meant to be read cover-to-cover. Rather, it's a compendium of ideas that your turn to as you notice complexity creeping into your life. For example, if you kitchen is a total mess, or your office, or your car, you turn to that chapter and get anywhere from twenty to fifty ideas on how to make things more simple. Mark Victor Hansen, the Chicken Soup for the Soul co-author, is the forward author for this book. That says a lot.