Is Voluntary Simplicity Worth Reading?
The natural response to a lot of the content of this book is that it’s all about environmentalism and the like. In fact, a few years ago, I encouraged a reader to pick this up and he wrote back to me a few weeks later ranting about how he was never going to tie himself to a tree like the “hippie” that wrote this book. If that’s what you got out of the book, you’re missing the point. The entire point of the book is that you don’t have to overconsume in areas that aren’t important to your life. If you don’t watch television, don’t buy a television or have a cable box. If it’s nice outside, don’t run your air conditioner. If you’re not into clothing, wear clothing until it’s actually worn out – and then even consider mending it. In other words, if it’s not all that important to you, don’t consume. For me, this was one of the most thought-provoking books I’ve read in the past five years or so. It made me think deeply about a lot of the assumptions I’ve had in my own life and made me questi
