Books : Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life That Is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich (Revised edition)
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by: Duane Elgin
List Price: $12.95Amazon.com's Price: $11.01 You Save: $1.94 (15%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 179.9
EAN: 9780688121198
ISBN: 0688121195
Label: Quill (William Morrow)
Manufacturer: Quill (William Morrow)
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 240
Publication Date: November 04, 1998
Publisher: Quill (William Morrow)
Release Date: October 21, 1998
Sales Rank: 60982
Studio: Quill (William Morrow)
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
When Voluntary Simplicity was first published in 1981, it quickly became recognized as a powerful and visionary work in the emerging dialogue over sustainable ways of living. Now, more than ten years later and with many of the planet's environmental stresses having become more urgent than ever, Duane Elgin has revised and updated his revolutionary book.
Voluntary Simplicity is not a book about living in poverty; it is a book about living with balance. It illuminates the pattern of changes that an increasing number of Americans are making in their everyday lives -- adjustments in day-to-day living that are an active, positive response to the complex dilemmas of our time. By embracing, either partially or totally, the tenets of voluntary simplicity -- frugal consumption, ecological awareness, and personal growth -- people can change their lives. And in the process, they have the power to change the world. First published in 1981, Voluntary Simplicity was instantly recognized as a visionary work. The New York Times called it 'seminal'; the Wall Street Journal noted that it was 'considered the movement's Bible.' Revised in 1993 to address the trend toward downshifting, this pertinent book helps us to adjust our thoughts, habits, and goals and embrace the key elements of simplicity: frugal consumption, ecological awareness and personal growth.
Amazon.com Review:
Voluntary Simplicity by Duane Elgin, first published in 1981 and revised in 1993, is the sacred text for those wanting to liberate themselves from enslavement to a job and the pursuit of status symbols. Elgin's work emerges from a concern for the environmental consequences of our mass consumption lifestyles. His book exhorts us to save the planet and our souls by 'living with balance in order to find a life of greater purpose.'
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - The "Dolce Vita" explained
What a beautiful book with clear and meaningful information to understand what real "Dolce Vita" or living with simplicity is all about.
We work harder to buy the next gadget, we work hard to fix and maintain the gadget, we work hard to play with it and more.... In the mean time we forget about the true meaning of living simply and enjoying life.
This book will open your eyes and make you realize what is important in life. I found so many pleasure in the ideas written in ... Read More
Rating:  - Voluntary Simplicity
I'm a great devotee of voluntary simplicity and have read many excellent books on the subject (among my favorites are Janet Luhr's "Guide to Simple Living," Dominguez's "Your Money or Your Life," and Dyzychen's "Tightwad Gazette" collections). This is definitely the worst and least helpful of them all. Seems extremely dated (even though revised in 1998) and "70s" with rather hazy California granola/New Age overtones. The author spends a lot of time waxing poetic on the more general philosophy of ... Read More
Rating: - Some great insights from several years ago, better living through better living
Elgin, the author of Voluntary Simplicity, however, is bringing up his Now observation to point out that we can't even get to voluntary if we get strangled by a mind all bound up in phantasms of the past or the future. That's an interesting argument, and I wonder how it might apply to the freedom movement as well. Topic for another day.
By identifying the spiritual basis for a different, more elegant way of living, the author couldn't be more on target. Still, most people reading the book ... Read More
Rating:  - Worse than a waste of time
Hours of my life energy wasted in reading this collection of chapters from a think-tank hippie that I will never get back.
Totally worthless. The only pages worth their ink are the "Suggested Readings" list at the end: provides a list of books from authors that actually know how to write and provide useful information on learning to live simply in our modern world.
In one of his token verses acknowledging Christianity he quotes from 1 John 3:17, but in his ignorance erroneously ... Read More
Rating:  - Classic on Environmental integrity.
Elgin's book is a classic on embodied environmentalism: it demonstrates the actions that we can take in our lives to impact negative environmental outcomes; this book also provides a clear model for our embodied action. This is an empowerment book written by a Father of the movement. The depth and richness of Elgin's insight flows off of every page. A must read for anyone ready to embody their values into action on behalf of the Earth!
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