Books About Simplicity

There are several books to read when considering simplifying your life, or honing those skills and moving forward even more. Among them:

Choosing Simplicity: Real People Finding Peace and Fulfillment in a Complex World by Linda Breen Pierce. This book collects stories from those who have downsized their lives, and relates their experiences and whether or not they regret the change. This makes it a bit different from those giving tips and counsel on HOW to simplify. Here, the author conducted a study and writes about those who have actually simplified. A good read.

Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence by Joe R. Dominguez and Vicki Robin. This is the must-read choice for any Simplicity bookshelf. It's the cornerstone, the landmark, the Big Kahuna of your reading choices.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Simple Living. Yes, there is one.

Living the Simple Life : A Guide to Scaling Down and Enjoying More by Elaine St. James. Good tip book - some you may like more than others (it's easier to cancel the paper than it is to eat the same meals, week after week) but it is one that you'll go back and re-read, and learn more each time.

Voluntary Simplicity, Revised Edition: Toward a Life that is Inwardly Simple, Outwardly Rich by Duane Elgin. History of the movement, discussion of spiritual motivations behind downsizing. Another Must-Read.

The Simple Living Guide by Janet Luhrs. Talks about choices. Simple living as making conscious choices: you can still wear designer if that's your preference, but you buy your duds in places other than the mall. Helps to understand the wide variety of lifestyles available within the "voluntary simplicity" world.

Others to check out:

Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic by John de Graaf, David Wann, Thomas H Naylor.

Twenty-First Century Economics: Perspectives of Socioeconomics for a Changing World edited by William E. Halal and Kenneth B. Taylor.