Customer Reviews

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

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

 

 

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.

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.

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!

I don't know why so many people reacted negatively to this book. I've borrowed it so many times from the library that I'm finally getting my own copy this week. Basically, St James shares with us her wonderful ideas and methods for simplifying her own life. My husband and I, as we progress on our walk with Jesus, have implemented so many of these that our lives are forever changed. From how to painlessly "Declutter" your garage without missing things to ideas for comfortably sleeping without having a bed that takes an hour to make, every single piece of advice in here is worth the read. My husband and I sleep, eat, and live better thanks to alot of these common sense ideas, and though we came to many of the same conclusions on our own, it's wonderful to have a book to refer to when in doubt! I recommend this to everyone who asks us "how come you guys always seem to have it together?"

I agree with the other reviewers. This is perhaps the biggest waste of money, as well as the biggest waste of time I have ever spent. As far as her "lifestyle" changing once she discovered the "simple approach"... She was only able to live a more lax lifestyle because she and her husband were successful real in estate. She had basically made enough $$ to retire, and only then did she apply these techniques. This is more of a amusing handbook on how one could spend their golden years, rather then how one should/could realistically live today.

This book has some valuble tips on cleaing up and getting rid of clutter. That's about it. This woman's claim to fame is that she is a former 80's yuppie who got tired of the lifestyle. She is now taking on the role of a simple 90's woman. I'm curious to see what she becomes in the next decade. She has no right or merit to publish a book giving unsuspecting people advice on how to live. Alot of her suggestions are rediculous (practice dying), and some are just outright unhealthy (learn to detach--people who practice this usually spend years in therapy trying to correct it). This woman has absolutely no qualifications in any area, except for being trendy and shallow. Another thing that bothered me is that the book is divided into three sections, each section with exactly 100 tips-which leads me to believe that some (if not most) of the tips are nothing more than filler to meet the 100 mark. The book is about 800 pages, but each page has about 2 paragraphs centered on the page. The book could easily be around 300 pages if it was formatted normally. I recommend it to no one.

This book has very little valuble suggestions, and some are, to quote another review, rediculous! The wise reader will read this book and find that it has very little practicle advice to fit any lifestyle. It is truley amazing what can get published these days. I also recommend it to nobody.