Rating: 
Summary: He said "reasonable", not easy...
Review: As other reviewers have noted, some of Mate's suggestions and exhortations may seem extreme. In that vein this may not be the best book to read first about "simplicity". However, it will be the most entertaining one to read if you are not afraid of being challenged or convicted of some of your own excesses. Part of being reasonable is to also be responsible and have some common sense. Of course you aren't going to go out and apply every single one of the author's suggestions. But if you think about doing one of them, I suspect he will have judged the book a success. I think you will find yourself laughing (usually at yourself) as you identify with what is being written in these pages. Share it with a neighbor or friend.
Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful slap upside the head
Review: I have read several complainy reviews here, and I believe they are caused by two things: a failure to appreciate certain writing techniques, such as the "rhetorical rant", and placing too much seriousness on Mate's socialist political sympathies. I found his political notions to be rediculous (literally carve up cities into happy little villages, making the rich pay for it??). But if you can set aside some of his loonier ideas and just accept that he is a gadfly, the book can be completely illuminating. Readers must be able to recognize satire or the occasional rant. Did he really MEAN we should stop doing cross-word puzzles? Of course not! His larger point is missed to those who can't see the device of exageration he is using. So many of his ideas make so much sense, and I've come to adopt several of them. The value of the family garden. A call to honor the notion of rest on Sunday (harkening back to the ancient idea of the Sabbath). His TV chapter makes me feel like such an idiot for how I sometimes waste precious hours of my life in front of that box. His description of the state of education, and consumerism in the face of what our children really need: us. Whoa! I think this is, on balance, a fantastic book. I disagree with the author on his contention that cities are horrible and the countryside is idylic. I LOVE Chicago and find it to be a very humane and beautiful place to live. Yes, it has many serious problems, like all cities, but it also has life and many opportunities to build genuine comunities -- of neighbors, at one's church, etc. Rather than flee, I choose to take Mate's compelling ideas and challenges and try to find a way to apply them to life in my city. Steven Slaughter
Chicago
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful slap upside the head
Review: I have read several complainy reviews here, and I believe they are caused by two things: a failure to appreciate certain writing techniques, such as the "rhetorical rant", and placing too much seriousness on Mate's socialist political sympathies. I found his political notions to be rediculous (literally carve up cities into happy little villages, making the rich pay for it??). But if you can set aside some of his loonier ideas and just accept that he is a gadfly, the book can be completely illuminating. Readers must be able to recognize satire or the occasional rant. Did he really MEAN we should stop doing cross-word puzzles? Of course not! His larger point is missed to those who can't see the device of exageration he is using. So many of his ideas make so much sense, and I've come to adopt several of them. The value of the family garden. A call to honor the notion of rest on Sunday (harkening back to the ancient idea of the Sabbath). His TV chapter makes me feel like such an idiot for how I sometimes waste precious hours of my life in front of that box. His description of the state of education, and consumerism in the face of what our children really need: us. Whoa! I think this is, on balance, a fantastic book. I disagree with the author on his contention that cities are horrible and the countryside is idylic. I LOVE Chicago and find it to be a very humane and beautiful place to live. Yes, it has many serious problems, like all cities, but it also has life and many opportunities to build genuine comunities -- of neighbors, at one's church, etc. Rather than flee, I choose to take Mate's compelling ideas and challenges and try to find a way to apply them to life in my city. Steven Slaughter
Chicago
Rating:
Summary: What we've forgotten...
Review: I loved this book. Ferenc Mate takes us all for a stroll down memory lane to illustrate just how far off course we've strayed. To read this book is to remember what matters, and realize that you probably haven't been focusing on what matters for some time now. I particularly enjoyed his vision for creating self-sufficient communities that encouraged the interaction of folks living there.
Rating:
Summary: A Life Changing Book That Keeps On Changing Me!
Review: I read this book years ago; actually put a sign above our front door that read "Only the 'Reasonable' May Enter" as a reminder to us and our friends to leave the unreasonable life outside the doors and walls of our home. I have given away 20 copies at least to friends. I LOVE that Mate hits you up 'side of the head with profound "what if's!" It made me think...no, actually, it made me THINK...about my choices and that I HAD choices. My husband and I ended up moving to the countryside for six years and now we've moved back to the city. BOTH lifestyles have advantages, both were choices. I'm now re-reading this book from the perspective of one that has experienced both and I'm loving the 'hit up side of the head' again, reminding me that I can either be part of the solution or part of the problem. That's what a good writer is supposed to do...make us THINK. And Mate is a master at doing that!
Rating:
Summary: A rant to remember.
Review: Read this 235-page rant. Yes, Ferenc Mate's book is preachy, but it
also has the ring of truth. He writes, "[m]ost of you might
dismiss this as the raving of some idealist who simply doesn't fit
into the modern, well-ordered world. That's probably true. But where
exactly do you fit in? Where and when in the world do you feel wildly
happy? Or truly free? Or fiercely alive, or at peace, or even just
content? I don't think these emotions are an extravagant luxury. I
would think them to be the norm among a species that trumpets itself
superior to all others in both intellect and spirit. I would think
them the norm in anybody's life, and if they're not, then perhaps he
doesn't fit into this world any more than I" (p. 66). We live
"within a gnat's hair of bankruptcy" (p. 136), Mate
observes, in "featureless landscapes of featureless people"
(p. 124), and "callous cities" breeding "callous
citizens" (p. 121). Our "work-hype-run-change-buy"
world leaves us with no time to reflect or to make real choices
(p. 144). "Have we taken a cue from junk bonds, junk food, junk
mail, and junked our minds as well?" (p. 154), Mate asks,
concluding "we stopped reasoning and questioning long ago"
(p. 40). He questions the real value of "the gizmos, gadgets,
and gear that clutter our lives" (p. 10), "the castles and
palaces" we call home (p. 25), our "mostly numbing,
demeaning," and "emotionally stifling" steady jobs
(pp. 25; 68), pesticides and processed foods, big-city life, and
television. "The dull repetition, the infantile plots, the
cardboard people, the hype, the senseless violence" of
television, Mate notes, is turning us into "a society of the
numb" (p. 188). To live a reasonable life in this unreasonable
world is possible if we first liberate ourselves from our "prison
of junk" (p. 223). "Dump the TV set; cut up all credit
cards, coupons, green stamps, crossword puzzles, cancel all
subscriptions, prescriptions, addictions, membership, affiliations,
commitments and obligations, aerobic classes, kung fu classes, shrink
appointments, [and] hair appointments, . . . and go home after work,
and just sit in the dark, and try to figure out what this madness is
all about" (p. 222). Mate also encourages us to consider home
gardening, self employment, and living in the country. By the end of
his tirade, Mate succeeds in turning the American Dream into a
nightmare that will wake you up to the revolution waiting to happen in
your life. G. Merritt
Rating:
Summary: my future existence
Review: Recently read this book, and I look forward to early retirement (as soon as my last child is educated). My husband and I plan to move to remote British Columbia, Canada and 'drop off the grid'. I am a Canadian (in the US for 8 years), and I can't wait to go home to a more 'calm' existence. This country is too fast, too extreme, too money driven! People act and react before they think. I am now married to an American and he wants to move to Canada as well. This book well describes how society has 'gone off the deep end' with everything. The world have 'over-engineered' every aspect of human existence. I feel anyone who doubts the way society is heading would benefit from reading this book. I loved it.
DY
Rating:
Summary: Insightful Read
Review: There are a lot of things I like about this book and a few that I do not.
We have lived a voluntary simplicity lifestyle for decades and like most thoughtful people into the lifestyle we pick and choose what works best for us. The author sadly assumes that everyone mis-uses the television, credit cards, or doesn't need prescriptions or can't choose wisely what subscription they will actually use, or at least pass on to kindred spirits. Some of the suggestions the author makes are much easier to make when one has money as a fall back in times of emergency. I and disagree with the author on whether one should throw the television out, since I think a major part of a simple lifestyle is self discipline and careful planning. We have DishTV since we like watching European news, as well as CSPAN and a few do it yourself shows. Driving fifty miles to take a class that I can take via television wouldn't be cost effective. Chapter 5 The Home Garden is good. I agree that fresh is best, and know both city dwellers who have organic gardens that fill their front and back yards as well as myself and most of my neighbors here in a rural area who do the same. I also disagree with the author that big cities (Chapter 10) are "unlivable" since I know New York, San Francisco, Seattle as examples offer ethnic diversity, free activities for families and mass transit, which living in the mountains as we do, doesn't. I agree with Chapter 12 Humane Small Towns, that if you can find a humane small town that you have found a gold mine. The key word in the chapters title is "humane." We live in the Sierras which we love because we love skiing, hiking and other out of doors activities. What we miss is the ethnic and political diversity. On page 133 as an example he says "...we abandoned our small towns for the mythical steady jobs, the excitement, fun people..." when in fact here in small town America people are abandoning the city for a more "white...republican...non-diverse" way of life. I agree almost in total with Chapter 12 The Self Helpless Society. Because I think that there is something about living in a rural area where you really do have to develop some major self sufficiency that will be a survival tool when the power is out because of snow for a week, that makes a person stronger. But if everyone from the cities moves to the country, you get the central valley of California which was 70% agriculture 20 years ago, and now is one long suburban-city area from Sacramento to Fresno. One thing I wish the author had addressed more, is a major solution issue, namely overpopulation. Fewer people means cleaner air, water, and few new houses needing to be built. But I am glad I bought the book on Amazon.com
Rating:
Summary: Changed My Way Of Thinking
Review: This book changed my way of thinking about how I was or wasn't living my life. It's one of those "gems of a book" which I'll need to reread over and over (enjoyingly so,) just to keep me on-course living a purpose-filled, well balanced life. The book did actually enhance my life...now if I could only live in Tuscany!
Rating:
Summary: Changed My Way Of Thinking
Review: This book changed my way of thinking about how I was or wasn't living my life. It's one of those "gems of a book" which I'll need to reread over and over (enjoyingly so,) just to keep me on-course living a purpose-filled, well balanced life. The book did actually enhance my life...now if I could only live in Tuscany!
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