Customer Reviews

Seven Sins for a Life Worth Living

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

 

 

If like many of us lately you are a slave to your email, cell phone, schedule and frantic life, this delightful book will help you unwind. It chronicles in a deeply personal and accessible way, Housden's search for ways to accept life on its own terms, rather than constantly striving for more and more. Housden is the author of the best-selling Ten Poems series. His latest work is a journey through his Seven Pleasures: the pleasure of all five senses, being foolish, not being perfect, and so on. "Why not celebrate our blemishes, our imperfections, as the very qualities that make us human?"

His book offers a refreshing way to celebrate life in all its imperfect richness, and encourages you to accept your own ordinariness and humanity. He says each of us, in our own extraordinary, imperfect way are wonderful in our own right, just as we are.

Highly recommended for those Type A personalities who find themselves constantly on the go, if you can just schedule enough time in your day to read it.

Chalk one up for the marketing department. When I saw this catchy title at our public library, I took the bait. Not that I'm sorry I read the book, but I was hoping for something more substantial given the promising table of contents. The seven sins worth living for are the pleasures of enjoying the beauty of the five senses, being foolish, not knowing, not being perfect, doing nothing useful, being ordinary, and of coming home. The good news, says Housden, is that no upgrades are needed to live this way, that if we can learn to be present in the moment and to each other, "life is already enhanced enough as it is." His stated purpose reminds me of a friend's joke: "Lighten up, you'll be dead a long time."

Our readiness to follow our culture's cues leads us astray. We pride ourselves on being important, busy, and driven, developing personas that, deep down, we intuit are at best superficial and perhaps even phony. If you asked most anyone, they would agree that a new car, an in-box stuffed with hundreds of emails, or a better address do not, ultimately, provide a deep sense of satisfaction, but that's not how we live. Religion, too, comes in for heavy criticisms in Housden's view; it generates guilt and all sorts of inhibitions. In selected portions of the book Housden shares from his own life how he has developed a more centered self that honors the inner journey as much or more as the outer journey. Throughout the book he sprinkles trenchant aphorisms regarding life lived more joyfully, more playfully, more fully. "When you die," goes one piece of advice, "God and the angels will hold you accountable for all the pleasures you were allowed in life that you denied yourself." Learning to be at home in the world and with yourself is no easy task; Housden gets you started.

SEVEN SINS confirms what I already knew...that a life worth living is also a life of pleasure and enjoyment..not just productivity. And, as a psychotherapist, I recommend it to friends and clients! It is clear, well-written, personal and, in the spirit of lightening up, doesn't take itself too seriously. Enjoy!

Robert Levithan

I would highly recommend that you sit down with your partner and read this book to each other. Roger Housden is an extraordinary writer and this book is a joy to read. Especially for those of us that feel we need to have things tightly under control. He makes it clear that it is ok "not to know it all", it is ok to spend time doing absolutely nothing, and other very useful insights.

I wound up purchasing this book as a gift and reading it from cover to cover in the span of two hours myself.
Amazing read.

This was a wonderful guide to giving yourself permission to just be who you are in all of your imperfect glory! Well written, insightful and a quick read, but one you will pick up again because the contents are so nourishing.

I'm getting tired of these types of self-help books. This one went beyond and was actually insulting - i.e., "It's okay not to be perfect" - Duh? Wouln't recommend it and didn't finish reading it.

The advice in this book may be good for someone who is suffering from workaholism. For most people this book is worthless. Indulgence in pleasure only brings temporary gradification and an endless want for more pleasure.

The book is irritating to read as author comes across as a self absorbed braggart who manufactures tall tales. He divorced his wife to marry a much younger woman. The author stopped going to clairvoyants because they always predicted what girl he would meet and what house he would buy and so life became boring. Sounds like bragging fiction to me.

Selfishness & self indulgence bring suffering not happiness. The last thing people need is more encouragement toward self indulgence. Unfortunately seems to me that many therapists seem to encourage selfishness because it is what clients want to hear. Ever notice that people who have been in therapy for a long time are so self-absorbed as to be impossible to be with?

The real path to happiness is to divorce selfishness not your wife and to serve others. Much better books: read Pathways to Joy by Vivekananda or any book by the Dalai Lama or books by Ken Wilber.

I am in the middle of the book at the moment and happened to stumble upon it in a bookstore weeks ago. I myself am 25 and can appreciate the idea of excepting all the pleasures that life has to offer. If we can all learn to follow the simple ideas of this book. Life would be a lot more pleasurable!

I was looking forward to an inspirational read when I picked this book up and began reading. I continued reading hoping that it would become more engaging. I then found myself skipping pages, then chapters, just stopping long enough to read the quotes tucked among the verbiage and was relieved to finally come to the last three pages which I felt short changed the title of the last chapter. I guess if one was really bored and really hard up for something to read you might discover something that I didn't find. The author elaborates endlessly on what is obvious. We all have relatives like this whom we avoid asking questions or sitting next to at gatherings. Save your money and purchase something more worthwhile.