Rating: 
Summary: Simplify your life--make things easier for everyone!
Review: I'm not sure what the person who gave this book a 1 was thinking, but I'm sure he/she wasn't looking for a real solution to world and personal problems. This book has really helped me focus on what's important in my life--not money or things or a nice house, but happiness with myself and what I do every day. It's the "American Way" to think that having truckloads of stuff will make us happier, better people, but that's the key to unhappiness. Read this book and see how you, too, can simplify your own life, take all that pressure off yourself, and feel good about what you're doing (since it helps everyone AND the earth). "Voluntary simplicity" isn't easy to deal with at first--gee whiz, what'll my friends and colleagues think if I don't dress in Armani suits or have a fancy new car or live in a big house stuffed with useless things?--but once you get the hang of living for your own betterment and that of our planet, you'll easily be able to tell the naysayers to hit the road.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful,Thoughtful, And Illuminating Work!
Review: If the singular word "visionary" is one that can be used to describe such a popular and overwhelming bestseller as this book has become, then that is best word I can conjure up out of my subconscious to describe it in a word. In a time when the material excesses of our civilization are spinning out of control, Duane Elgin writes with passion and clarity about the costs of such materialistic strivings. He believes that to work for a sustainable future is not just a pipedream, but an achievable goal reached through a reorientation and enlightenment on the part of the postindustrial world that mere material goods cannot ever truly make us happy. In fact, he argues, it is our love affair with acquiring more and more 'things' that enslaves us and makes us quite the opposite. Thus, he writes with apassionate and informed concern for the disastrous consequences of our endless addiction to acquisition and ownership of more and more material goods. Yet such acquisition is a dead end street from which little can be gained. The author hopes to enlighten the reader into recognizing that it is in his or her interest to become less acquisitive, to simplify his or her own life and regain the balance that is missing from his or her own life. He argues persuasively on behalf of living of life with greater balance and freedom, one in which the individual is more a person who is much than one who has much. For him voluntary simplicity supposes both an inner and outer condition requiring a singleness of purpose, sincerity and honesty within, a purposeful avoidance of exterior clutter. He recognizes that having many possessions is not only irrelevant to what most of us want from life, it is quite often the chief obstacle standing in the individual's way. Thus, voluntary simplicity means a purposeful focusing of our energy and desires, recognizing we have limited energies and capabilities and that we must exercise some control over our endless desires in order to live a life of higher quality and purpose. For the author, many of the problems of life in today's society are related to our trivial diversions into mass consumerism and all that such diversions entail. What better recommendation can one make for a book than to say that reading it will likely enlighten you and profoundly change the way you look at, interact with, and proceed in the world around you? This is truly, without resorting unnecessarily to hyperbole, a powerful and visionary work, and one that should be on every thoughtful reader's bookshelf.
Rating:
Summary: A good book for the beginning
Review: If you are looking for a good overview on the ideas of simple living, try this book. Lacking sometimes indepth information it still is a very good overview and introduction in the concepts of simple living.
Rating: 
Summary: inspiring - read other books on this subject, too
Review: If your idea of the nature of the planet and its inhabitants comes from a Disneyworld mind-numbing, Nutra sweet fantasy, dont bother reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: Classic on voluntary simplicity
Review: In this groundbreaking book, social scientist Duane Elgin interweaves his personal philosophy of choosing to live simply with the thoughts and experiences of many people who followed the same path. He makes a compelling case -- survival of the planet -- for adopting the principles he espouses. Whether voluntary simplicity is the foundation of your life or a concept you're just beginning to explore, you'll find much to ponder in this classic work.
Rating:
Summary: Preaching to the converted?
Review: Not quite a classic in the sense of Thoreau's "Walden", and not a practical how-to like Dominguez and Robin's "Your money or your life". First published in 1981, Voluntary Simplicity nevertheless offers a passionate and compelling arguement in favour of simplicity, frugality and sanity. One can take the view that we can go living the way we are forever, but recent world events should point to the fact that that is an unrealistic dream. As the earth has its limits, so does the patience of the "have-not" nations we share the world with. Voluntary Simplicity's message is relevant and eminently sensible. But with our culture's prevailing attitudes of greed and consumerism, it is easier said than done. Unfortunately the message seems lost on those who needs it most.
Rating: 
Summary: A Sermon
Review: This book is an ecumenical sermon about the global implications of hyper-consumerism. It contains little information about specific ways to reduce consumption, leaving it open to the readers to discover techniques that work for them. Instead, it focuses on the ethical philosophy of consuming only what you need. But are the foundations of this philosophy firm? The author seems to use guilt as a motivating factor for getting Westerners to cut their consumption. He repeatedly states that individuals in the West should reduce their consumption habits, suggesting implicitly that high consumption in the West is depriving the developing world of money or other resources. Paradoxically, reducing consumption in the West would deny wages to the Third World workers who produce consumer products for Western markets. So reducing Western consumption as a means to make the world a better place implies a very simplistic view of economics. Besides that, Western hyper-consumerism pales in the face of that displayed by affluent Easterners or South Asians. A more defensible reason for reducing consumption would be because it simply makes you feel better on a personal level. Also, it's beneficial for family budgets when money isn't spent before it's earned. And that leads to healthier family relationships. A book that focused its arguments on such issues would be far more convincing than this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Subject is "Not" what the title indicates!
Review: This book is disappointing because the author has spent time in the orient and from this experience has written a book about how to escape (run from) life and reality. The book does not base its main premise on reality. The author is hoping the industrial world will collapse and take the worlds problems with it, since he feels that man cannot act but should just get out of the way. Do not buy it.
Rating:
Summary: Dumbed down marxism
Review: This book is not the best introduction i've seen to left wing political and social thought. Essentially this book boils down to an incredibly dulled down (and perhaps even anti-intellectual) interpretation of some of Marx's more interesting idea's. However, books like these are dangerous. Marx is remembered due to jis brilliance. Duane Elgin will not be. He demonstartes a less then adequate understanding of the material he preaches, and borders on a thin line where he plays with some potentially dangerous idea's. To all considering to buy this book, I'd recomend picking up some Marx, or any well known Marxist thinker, so as to get a clear interpretation of what is being spoken of, and so that you are given direction by means of someone who truly can see the larger picture, and who has a deeper understanding ofd the human dileema.
Rating:
Summary: A Simple Book ...
Review: This book, a gift from a friend, was a simple read - I am surprised by some of the reviews that confuse the thoughts in here with Marxism, since I didn't find much of that. In fact, Elgin's book is filled with quotes from world religions, citing the reasons we truly need to live a simpler life. I sat reading this book, surrounded with my stacks of books and clothing - "things" I do not need but want - and can afford to get. Halfway through reading, I felt supported in my firm desire (and so far feeble efforts) to continue unloading my home of excesses while downsizing my "wants." Elgin offers this support in a gentle and convincing way - he offers no directions, for he says "Because simplicity has as much to do with each person's purpose in living as it does with his or her standard of living, it follows that there is no single, "right and true" way to live more ecologically and compassionately." His goal is to move his readers to live more simply because it makes more sense, not because we are told we 'should' do so, or because it is a trend. He hopes to move us from within. He offers compassionate, thoughtful reasons to live with less "things." He also gives a history of simplicity's roots - using thoughts from a diversity of views: Christian, Eastern, early Greek, Puritan, Transcendental, and (one of my favorites, of course!) Quakers. He recalls an experience he had with Elise Boulding, a well known Quaker, which helped move him more toward voluntary simplicity (worth reading the book just to experience this with him.) It makes more sense, according to Elgin, for the good of the planet, of other human beings, of our children's future, of our own quality of life, now. And the reasons are many - not economical OR spiritual OR environmental OR community - but any and all of those (a reader can focus on one that moves the individual) He offers information on ways of thinking and acting that lead to a simpler life, and though I fall way short in my own actions and behaviors, I never felt judged. I did feel moved. In his final section on revitalization, he offers ideas for how we might make simplicity happen. Most of what he says I liked, though I'm not fond of his idea that "voluntary" changes in consumption would be made if a higher tax was applied to "luxury goods, gasoline, alcohol and cigarettes." While that might make changes, they would certainly not be "voluntary." However, that is one small suggestion, not a fixed line. I especially liked his People Living the Simple Life chapter, with bits from people who found easy ways to simplify their lives. This book goes on my gift list for friends who need encouragement, not specific 'how-to directions', in living the simpler life.
|
