For some reason, this book called to me. I was walking through the Barnes and Noble, coffee in hand and I saw it's lime green and orange cover on the corner of the money book table. It has a silly amateurish illustration of a man holding up his fist in defiance on the front cover.
Huh. What is that? I thought. I'll just pick it up and flip through it.
I ended up buying it. Now let me say that I have read hundreds of books about money. And I hate to say this, but most of them are all the same. Retirement savings, blah blah blah, pay off your credit cards, what else is new? Very few of them are something radically new.
The first page I flipped to in this book read:
"So, put simply, if you have somewhere to live, enough money to buy or produce good food, friends, books and plenty of booze and cigarettes, then how bad can life be? These are the important things. all the rest is mere decoration, distraction,vanity, ostentation... This unmaterialistic attitude can be achieved on any income. What we need is not to care."
Amen. I have been saying that for years and people just looked at me like I was naked and covered in birthday cake.
This book is unlike anything I've ever read before. It isn't a traditional money book. I think it defies categorization. It's not exactly self help or self-improvement. It's not exactly about personal finance and yet it is about those things and even more.
It's part history book, part what-the-hell-are-you-doing-with-your-life book, and part political. The basic premise? You work too much, you spend too much, you worry too much about money and careers, and wouldn't you rather be at the pub drinking beer and chatting with your friends? Or at home playing with your kids?
In a way, it's a guidebook and inspirational tome for those who want to be more idle. Apt, as Hodgkinson is the editor of The Idler, a British magazine for those who aspire to do as little as possible, at least as far as paid employment.
The ideas wouldn't be nearly as poignant if Hodgkinson wasn't so well read, and so able to use historical and literary citations to show us exactly how good we don't have it in the modern world.It seems that in every century before the 19th, people worked a lot less, made a lot more merry, and spent more time pursuing happiness than we in the digital age. It seems that technology has not delivered on its promise to create leisure time for the masses. Productivity gains have somehow been turned into an excuse to work more, rather than freeing us from work.
Chapters in this book bear such compelling titles as
- Reject career and all its empty promises
- The tyranny of bills and the freedom of simplicity
- Cast off your watch
- Stop working, start living
Hodgkinson in many ways is living the Middle Path Finance life. He spends time with his wife and kids, grows a bunch of own food, bakes his own bread, makes his own beer which he the drinks in his home pub with his buddies, and he works. Some, not a lot. And he doesn't seem to worry much about money.
Although, his penchant for not paying bills on time and getting slapped with fines would make most frugalistas cringe, it works for him and there is something to be learned from his mode of being.
I don't regret buying this book. I've read it several times now, which in my world is the sign of a good book.I may soon pick up his other book, How to Be Idle. But then I fear I will become to complacent to keep blogging...
FYI: I have set up an Amazon bookstore where you can purchase the titles I review if you are interested in them. I'm not a fan of shameless sales tactics. But, I thought this would make finding the titles you are interested in a lot easier, while helping to pay for the hosting fees of this blog! Here is the link to the Middle Path Finance bookstore.-DT
