The Simplicity Reader: Simplify Your Life, Inner Simplicity, and Living the Simple Life [Hardcover]

Elaine St.James (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1999

THE SIMPLICITY READER collects renowned simplicity expert Elaine St. James' three best-selling books into one convenient hardcover volume. Offering easy-to-use advice that can be immediately put to use, whether in regard to relationships, work, the household or finances, this complete "simplicity primer" provides easy solutions to unnecessary clutter-in one's environment and in one's mind. Readers will discover why Oprah Winfrey and Time magazine have both endorsed Elaine St. James' simple life philosophy as one of today's most important trends.

Elaine St. James is the author of Simplify Your Life, Inner Simplicity, Living the Simple Life, Simplify Your Life With Kids, and Simplify Your Christmas. A popular lecturer, she has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, CNN, and ABC News specials. Her weekly syndicated column, Simplify Your Life, appears in newspapers nationwide. She lives with her husband in Santa Barbara, California.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 858 pages
• Publisher: Smithmark Pub; Second Edition edition (August 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765116766
• ISBN-13: 978-0765116765
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 2.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #935,367 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delighted to find all 3 gems in 1 hardback, March 18, 2000

By 

Jinny "vcuyler" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Simplicity Reader: Simplify Your Life, Inner Simplicity, and Living the Simple Life (Hardcover)

I have read (more than once) all three of these books separately and I keep purchasing them and passing them on to others... I was thrilled when I visited Amazon.com and found them to be all in one hardback. St. James isn't necessarily telling us anything we may not have already contemplated, but she is giving us an opportunity to focus on the concept. Each time I feel my life picking up a treadmill pace I retreat to a quiet corner with her books in an effort to take me back to where I really want to be. All three of these books have been constant companions since each of them were published.

Not all of her suggestions may be of use to a reader, but these are not textbooks--they are ideas to stimulate the thought process of life simplification. The wise reader will sift through St. James suggestions and design their future to fit their life and their needs.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Only for enlightenment seekers..., December 23, 2001

By 

Bruce I. Kinley "bindigok" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Simplicity Reader: Simplify Your Life, Inner Simplicity, and Living the Simple Life (Hardcover)

This book changed my life. It allowed me to focus on what is truly important in life. Once I started following just a few of her easy to implement ideas, a shift on priorities occured. Most all the simplifying books available suggest such complicated things. Elaine is to the point, with great insite and full of real experience. As a reader you understand how her life changed and how to change yours. One glance at any number of ideas, and you will understand the power in this book. You read it on your own time, let it unfold as you are ready. All the suggestions are practical and potent. Only a person who has a true desire to find peace and enlightenment will appreciate this book. I have given it to several people has gifts, and watched their life change before my very eyes.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simplify Now, September 5, 2007

By 

Amy Kranz - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Simplicity Reader: Simplify Your Life, Inner Simplicity, and Living the Simple Life (Hardcover)

I love simplify-your-life books. Them, and etiquette manuals. This book is an excellent source of tips for simplicity. I keep it on my (now purged) bookshelf in my (vastly de-cluttered) living room, and it's something I thumb through regularly.

St. James presents a hundred common-sense simplicity tips that anyone with an overscheduled life could use--whether or not they're rich and ready to retire off the grid. Of course the author writes from her personal experience. But her 1980s out-of-control yuppie lifestyle can be swiftly translated into the out-of-control soccer mom lifestyle of the 1990s and now the divorced-single-parent-midlife-change-re-entering-the-social-shpere 2000s lifestyle.

While some of her suggestions are not applicable to every life situation, I really don't believe they are contingent upon having extra money and hours and hours of free time. I'm a teacher. I certainly haven't either money or time to be slinging around on impractical psycho-babble: that's why I like this book so much! It's totally practical and an excellent starting point for more personalized simplification.

Go. Read. And make some changes in your life. Give stuff away. Go on, it's good for you!