101 of 102 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best book for those who want to simplify, March 8, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: The Simple Living Guide: A Sourcebook for Less Stressful, More Joyful Living (Paperback)
In this wonderful, inspiring book, Janet Luhrs provides myriad ideas for and insight into how simplifying your life can help you shift gears or even start over from scratch. The book offers loads of practical advice about how to implement changes in your life and escape the cycle of work, consumption, debt, and stress.
The author states at the outset that the book provides a variety of options for those interested in simplifying. Some of these options--like living off the grid or on a boat--will appeal to only a small number of people. However, the great stories from real people's lives do make you think about your job, house, and possessions and how you could streamline. Most of the suggestions (e.g., improving eating and exercising habits and better managing money and time) can be implemented by anyone.
I recently read Elaine St. James's Living the Simple Life and found it wanting and often impractical--foregoing sunglasses and wearing only three colors of clothing are not helpful suggestions to me! This book also focuses solely on the changes St. James and her husband made, with little mention of the wide spectrum of alternative approaches.
Luhrs's book differs by providing a vast array of resources, in addition to using life stories to outline approaches that folks have successfully employed to create more time, less stress, and more joy in their lives.
Buy this book and take from it the inspiration to help you realize who you really are!
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363 of 389 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
read "Your Money or Your Life", March 9, 2005
This review is from: The Simple Living Guide: A Sourcebook for Less Stressful, More Joyful Living (Paperback)
First of all, if you haven't read "Your Money or Your Life" already, just click over. That's the classic, the essential, and this is just an accessory. That's why there's 4 stars here: just to distinguish this from that. This book is for those continuing in simplicity, not getting started. If you read the negative reviews, I think you can tell that they started in the wrong place, and that some of them misunderstood "simplicity."
I am not the typical "voluntary simplicity" guy. VS is not about living on $2/day. It's about financial awareness and choices. I've thought about it, and I want to look like I spent about a thousand dollars getting dressed everyday.
But that requires choices, since I don't make $365,000 annually. Not, um, quite. That's what "simplicity" taught me. I don't need to buy an espresso machine, a blender, a dishwaher, a microwave, an MP3 player, or a car. My mobile phone is a dinosaur. I buy the cheapest coffee when my friends and I go to a coffee shop. When we go to a bar, I drink slowly, and thus less (but I buy good beer). I often buy used books, and they look better on the shelf anyway. I do my own laundry, and shine my own shoes. I work out at home rather than buy a gym membership. I eat fruit for lunch. I don't have children, and won't for a long time--the implicit trade-off: I might not live to see grandchildren. I prefer to make my dates dinner and rent a movie rather than go out. I bought my couch used, but it is far more romantic than a theater! And I am no chef, but I can whip up a tiramisu. The VS movement has certainly made me more romantic. I'd like a bigger apartment, but....
On the other hand, I have handmade Italian shoes, wool jackets, silk ties and satin sheets. I turn the heat way down in winter and wear sweaters in my house: each month I save enough to buy a first-rate pair of boxers! (No joke!) That's choices--and that's what voluntary simplicity is all about. You don't give up anything you love: but you choose what you love over what you like. (And hey, as for simplicity: a well-cared for $400 pair of shoes should last at least ten years. I have only one pair of black oxfords, and I won't buy another for many years. Hand wash those knit socks. Etc.)
Although none of my friends can tell, I'm one of these VS folks. I still put about a grand a month into savings. I do shop carefully before I buy clothing, actually taking notes with a notebook, so that I make good choices, and I buy on sale. I recently changed jobs: taking a small (about 15%) pay-cut in exchange for substantially less work (about 50%). No one questioned that, actually! At least not to my face. But anyway, it was MY choice; or rather, my CHOICE.
Everybody's at a different point in life: for some people, VS means telling their kids they can't have a Playstation, or buying generic cereal in bulk, or learning to boil macaroni rather than hitting Taco Bell, and that's a situation far different from mine. But I really believe everybody should check out this VS stuff. It certainly won't hurt.
As far as lifestyle goes: choose for yourself. You don't have to buy second-hand clothes to be a "true" VSer. This isn't asceticism. Do you love fine wine? Do you want a classic Harley? Choose what you love, and live in a way that enables you to have it. That's voluntary simplicity.
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100 of 108 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Living in the Sidebars, July 20, 2002
This review is from: The Simple Living Guide: A Sourcebook for Less Stressful, More Joyful Living (Paperback)
Janet Luhrs brings her experience as the editor of Simple Living: The Journal of Voluntary Simplicity to the Simple Living Guide. Over 400 pages, this compendium of ideas for "less stressful, more joyful living" is heavy on the many philosophical ideas that fall under the simple living umbrella. In 14 topical chapters ranging from Money to Virtues Luhrs balances her occasionally redundant reflections with sidebars highlighting case studies, offering tips, and providing the nuts & bolts how-to's. Some of these are tremendously helpful and/or interesting. For example, in the chapter on Simple Pleasures and Romance, there is an article by Kirk S. Nevin about his family's decision to live without electricity or plumbing; and the chapter on Inner Simplicity includes a very practical article on dealing with insomnia.
Other sidebars are less helpful, more a mish-mash of 12-step generalisms, such as Luhrs' list of the 28 secrets to happiness, including "get organized," "be humble" and "learn from the past, plan for the future, and live in the present".
My two primary criticisms are that most of the ideas in this book are available elsewhere (see The Tightwad Gazette or Your Money or Your Life) and that some ideas aren't included. There is almost nothing here about permaculture, for example, and very little attempt at introducing serious or radical sustainability.
This book is a great primer for people who may have never encountered simple living philosophies before; however, those steeped in an already-intentional lifestyle will find little here that is new.
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