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A minimalist book (with fewer than 100 pages) to describe a minimalist lifestyle that the author studiously described as his own and not a prescription to others, The Happy Minimalist
would probably do best as a feature article than a book, however short. The author lives with a handful of belongings that would fit in his car (yes, he owns a car), which means no furniture, sleeping on the floor in his beloved sleeping bag and making do with folding chairs for himself and his guests. The best bits of the book hark back to the classic Your Money or Your Life
, which the author recommends as a good exercise to see what it really costs, in time of effort, to buy a TV or a “lifestyle.” The rest is, well, boring. It’s hard to get truly interested in the logistics of sleeping on the floor. Some parts are rather touching, as when he sets out to describe how his lifestyle is not bad for the economy. Others are simply silly, as when he tries to prove that owning lots of stuff doesn’t make you happy because people who lived a century ago did not have many of the so-called modern conveniences but were nevertheless happy. Funny that he also says he could not live without his computer…
