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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
I have been getting closer and closer to minimalism and wanted some practical tips. This book really didn't deliver that. It is more a collection of stories of people who have embraced minimalism and how they did it. Some are pretty extreme like living with only 100 items total, others are more practical. But what I really wanted was more of a how-to on getting rid of hard stuff. This was not it. And it was a bit too "preachy" for my tastes.
Really a 1.5. The information about how to live a minimalist life in terms of material things is good. However, I didn’t need the Jesus stuff. He could have used secular stories to reach a wider audience.
The last chapter felt like an ad read for his charity and ministry work. Everything else though was spectacular. I will not be selling my wedding ring anytime soon, but I’ll definitely “de-clutter” all facets of my life.
For those just beginning the concept of less is more this is a terrific place to start. I have been dabbling in minimalism for a long time and always enjoy reading new books on the subject. The author's blog is one I follow and it is fantastic.
While I appreciate Becker saying he was not going to use his own personal account of becoming a minimalist to persuade others to become one, I found his book not to be super easy to get through. I get non-fiction is not fun to read but I fell asleep too many times to count. I eventually DNFed it. This is a subject matter that really has a lot of common sense attached to it so it feels like I am not learning new material or new ways to let go of my stuff. I really think this is when therapy helps for the sake of "why do you keep adding more stuff after you purge." That is my biggest problem and none of the books have helped with that aspect so therapy it is!
I had this saved because I’ve been wanting to regularly declutter a lot of house. This just didn’t address the decluttering the way that works best for me. It was a bit more philosophical and focused on the ideas of minimalism rather than diving right into it. I’ve found I just need a book to start telling me to declutter and I get around to packing things up and removing them from my house. This didn’t give me that motivational feeling to take action.
This book had a profound impact on me, making it a no-brainer to give it a five-star rating.
Joshua Becker makes a very convincing argument for owning less. I hear his wise words echoing in the back of my mind when tempted to buy something new. Additionally, I'm looking at all of the stuff around me through a new lens, questioning whether it enhances or distracts my life and whether someone else would benefit from adding it to their possessions.
A couple of relatively minor criticisms. I think Joshua could have spent more time focusing on the environment impact of mass production. As is the case for other people I know, one of my key motivations for consuming less stuff is to reduce my environmental footprint. The biblical teachings he referenced added depth to the book, but may not resonate as strongly among people who aren't Christians. Mixing in parables from other religions and spiritual teachings would have helped enhance the global appeal.
At the end of the day, these are relatively minor quibbles and I'm happy to recommend this book to anyone who is feeling the burden of modern life and motivated to lighten their load and heighten their contribution to society.
Joshua Becker makes a very convincing argument for owning less. I hear his wise words echoing in the back of my mind when tempted to buy something new. Additionally, I'm looking at all of the stuff around me through a new lens, questioning whether it enhances or distracts my life and whether someone else would benefit from adding it to their possessions.
A couple of relatively minor criticisms. I think Joshua could have spent more time focusing on the environment impact of mass production. As is the case for other people I know, one of my key motivations for consuming less stuff is to reduce my environmental footprint. The biblical teachings he referenced added depth to the book, but may not resonate as strongly among people who aren't Christians. Mixing in parables from other religions and spiritual teachings would have helped enhance the global appeal.
At the end of the day, these are relatively minor quibbles and I'm happy to recommend this book to anyone who is feeling the burden of modern life and motivated to lighten their load and heighten their contribution to society.
We listened to the audio version of this book on a road trip. It is mostly generic explanation of why you should want to minimize, which we were already on board with. It provides very little in terms of practical advice for implementation. I was also not a fan of the Bible stories along the way.
I had to skip through the Jesus parts but I thought the author generally did a great job about explaining minimalism in terms of "actively promoting the things that are most important to you" as a way of determining what stays in your life. A meaningful measure for everything in my life.