Minimalist E-Book Roundup

by Jarkko on July 2, 2010 · 1 comment

In the recent years, a lot has been written about minimalism online, on blogs as well as in e-book format. With all the e-books about minimalism out there, it is getting hard to decide which one to pick — unless you want to take the route I did and just read them all.

As I have read all these books already, I thought I’d help out with that question, and so I collected this list of the current top books on minimalism. Check out my short reviews, and if you’re intrigued by the book, click on the link or the book cover to read what the author tells about his book. Many of them include free chapters you can read on their sales pages.

The Art of Being Minimalist by Everett Bogue

This is the first book I read about minimalism, and the one that finally made me decide that the minimalist movement is, indeed, something I want to identify myself with. While that personal experience makes me a bit biased when comparing the book with the rest, this is one that I wholeheartedly recommend as your first step towards becoming a minimalist.

In The Art of Being Minimalist, Everett Bogue provides a convincing set of practical reasons for adopting the minimalist lifestyle, always backing the claims with his own experiences. Bogue’s goal with minimalism is to be able to live and work from anywhere, but don’t let that stop you from learning from him — the lessons apply also to those of us who are not going anywhere (and frankly, having the choice to live from anywhere gives you a lot of freedom, even if you decide to never travel!).

This is simply a well-written, very professionally laid out and passionate book with clear, actionable steps to minimalism, backed up with real experience.

The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life by Leo Babauta

Leo Babauta, from Zen Habits fame, can be credited for starting the online movement that is currently bringing minimalism closer to mainstream throughout the blogospehere. Although I only read this book after finishing The Art of Being Minimalist, it is an online classic.

Building on top of Babauta’s blog posts, and written in a very clear style, The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life lays the foundation for minimalism through the principles of enough and being content with life, and provides tons of useful information to minimalist life and work, especially for people who do most of their work online or on a computer, like writers and software developers.

Babauta’s background as a professional writer shows, as this is clearly the best written book in all of the ones I have read so far. And the book is practical:

Being too busy also leads to clutter, because we don’t have time to clean up, don’t have time to get rid of the unnecessary, and clutter will pile up. So reducing what you do will help clear clutter.

The book has been out there for anyone to read for a while already and the only thing that I regret is that I didn’t get and read it earlier.

Simplify by Joshua Becker

Joshua Becker is a family man and father of two, and the top minimalist blogger from Becoming Minimalist. In his book Simplify, he walks the reader through the steps he has taken in the past two years in transforming the lifestyle of his family from what the mainstream considers normal to what he calls rationalist minimalism.

At first, I was a bit afraid that rationalist minimalism would be a watered down version of the new lifestyle, but the book (and a brief discussion over at Rowdy Kittens) confirmed my worries unfounded. The minimalism in Simplify is just as powerful and world changing as in the other books — if not even more.

The real power in Becker’s writing comes from its approachability. Simplify shows that you don’t have to be young and single to become a minimalist, and it guides you all the way from deciding to realign your life choices with your values to sticking with your decision. My favorite ideas can in fact be found from chapter 5: “Persevere” that contains a section where Becker explains how Christmas almost made him give up minimalism — and what he and his wife did to stay minimalist without stealing the joy of giving from their family members.

Minimalists can sometimes feel a bit over the top to the outsider, and that can make minimalism seem scary. If that’s how you feel about minimalism, and are not sure if it is for you, this is the book you need to read. It is by far the most approachable take on minimalism I have read.

Doing with Less by Daniel Richard

Daniel Richard’s Doing with Less is the newest out of the books in this post. Richard’s impressive track record in building a minimalist life in less than half a year, including starting six profitable minimalist businesses in four months and writing his book in only three weeks!

My first freedom business, that I co-owned with my best friend, Jeff, was created in a space of 10 days, with the first sale made in the 3rd day, revamped in 5 days, and crossed $2k sales with zero promotion and advertisement in less than 2 weeks upon launch.

The book layout is beautifully clean and minimalist, and in a clear structure it walks the reader through the whys and hows of minimalism: less stuff, less work, less spending, less noise and less complexity. The book is an easy and quick read as an introduction to minimalism, but compared to some of the strongest books on the list it doesn’t quite reach the same level.

Interestingly, although Richard must have tons of personal experience in running his businesses and becoming minimalist, he is holding back on the personal touch and stays on a high level in explaining minimalist concepts. I might have enjoyed the book more if it had been split into a series of book, each topic addressed in more depth. In this version, Richard gives feeds your curiosity with interesting ideas and then just moves to the next topic.

This is a book I would have wanted to love. And, if you follow the advice in it, you will live a good life and have success in business. But given all the other alternatives, it’s not enough.

Living the Simpler Life by Sam Spurlin

In his first e-book, Living the Simpler Life, Sam Spurlin approaches minimalism from the point of view of simplifying your life where the goal is to make your life easier, so for example, giving up your car is not automatically considered simpler than keeping it. This is not quite my definition of minimalism, but I can see the value in Spurlin’s thinking.

Above all, Living the Simpler Life is an honest book written by a real human (Spurlin is not yet an A-list blogger, nor making a fortune from his writing) that goes beyond the technicalities of becoming minimalist and simplifying your life to finding your path in life. An interesting mix of career advice, finding your values and then simplifying, this book could well be worth the $7.95 it is being sold for.

Looking at artistic values, though, you can clearly see that Spurlin has focused on delivering his message rather than making it look good. The text in the book isn’t always flowing smoothly, and the layout reminds me of a school work written in Microsoft Word, so when I started reading, I wasn’t expecting too much. This changed soon, and while I wouldn’t recommend this book over some of my favorites above, this is a solid piece of writing that deserves your consideration.

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