At the beginning it was good. Towards the end it became less practical in its advice, more repetitive and less "simple".
The first few chapters, focusing on simplifying the personal life, relationships and family were interesting. Though I was missing the actual advice on how to reach this level (practical real-life advice). The first few chapters were so simple and minimalist that they only outlined how a simpler life should or could look, but not how to achieve it.
Then it became longer, more examples or lifestyles and historic examples, but very little to apply here and now.
That was a shame. I had hoped for a little more from this book.

This book is all about simplifying your life but it is not just about decluttering. In fact, this is barely mentioned. Instead, it goes much deeper than that, into more nuanced areas of life such as how to be yourself rather than what society tells you to be, dealing with frustrations in your relationships, the cult of ‘busyness’, and a look at the human tendency to want what we don’t have. All this, and much more, is presented in a way that consistently stays true to the theme of moving from unnecessary complexity in our lives towards effortless simplicity.

Packed full of information, this book is written in easy to read, straightforward language that gets to the point quickly without waffle. It contains plenty of colour photos that serve to effectively illustrate the author’s narrative. I felt the book could have been improved by including actionable instructions or journal prompts at the end of each chapter but this is just personal preference and did not take away from my enjoyment of the book.

This is a self help book that encourages us to ask ourselves why we do or feel certain things; to look within to find out what we really want and to question how we feel about different aspects of our lives. I recommend this book to anyone interested in a deeper look at simplification but particularly if you are feeling a little overwhelmed and lost and want some down to earth guidance on how to live a simpler life.

My thanks to The School of Life and Netgalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review. All opinions in this review are my own.

A quick read. I am not a fan. I've read some books on minimalism, and this is not among the best. This book more explains how to act and look like a minimalist, and not how to actually become one. It's pedantic and condescending. The writing is dull. There are some okay messages to take away and some good pictures of art and buildings. I really wish I liked it more!

I wanted to like this book but it felt like a subject that I've read about a lot. It started off strong but started to feel repetitive as it went along. I'm sure someone newer to this subject matter will enjoy this. It was just ok to me.

In today's world we are drowned in a consumerism, noise, information and much more. This cult of busyness insists that a good life, indeed the only life worthy of a capable and intelligent person, is one of continuous activity and application; we must strive relentlessly to fulfil every ambition, and every hour of the day must be filled with intense activity. This is why, ultimately, modern existence feels so complicated. Millions of possibilities are offered to us, but we are never encouraged to stop and ask what any of them might actually be for.
We crave simplicity not because we are simple, but because we are drowning in complexity.

The book explores ideas around minimalism, simplicity and how to live comfortably with less and is an undecorated and straightforward manual for the simpler life we hanker for – and deserve.

This book explores a set of ideas with the power to foster simpler lives. It considers the outer world – how we might build ourselves simpler living spaces, routines, working patterns and friendships – but it also looks at how we might achieve inner simplicity.

When we lead quiet and simple lives, we aren’t deprived; we have been granted the privilege of being able to travel the unfamiliar, sometimes daunting, but essentially wondrous continents inside our own minds.


Simplicity isn’t so much a life with few things and commitments in it, as a life with the right, necessary things, attuned to our flourishing.

I highly recommend this guide to simpler and slower living.

4,5/5

If you have never read a book on this subject then maybe it’s interesting but even so this may not be the best place to start. Felt a bit of a pick and mix of classics in the genre.

Insightful review of many important ideas and topics relevant to living a simple life. An enjoyable read that prompts self-exploration and personal growth..

This book is hard to rate because for the person who is entirely new to the subject, it will offer some interesting food for thought and point one in the direction of useful resources. However, if you’ve been giving the topic some thought and have read works like Kamo no Chōmei’s “The Ten Foot Square Hut,” you’re likely to find it a disappointing regurgitation of the thoughts of others mixed with banal truisms. So, I wouldn’t recommend it for someone who’s begun simplifying their lives, but for someone who needs an entry point that isn’t as intimidating as hardcore works such as that of Chōmei it might be of use.

My biggest problem with this book was that it seemed to suggest that because simplifying means more simplicity that all readers would be converging toward the same life. In other words, that there isn’t space for a diversity of approaches to simplicity. In one of the great ironies of the book, it advocates for reading less and having at most a dozen books on one’s shelf. The irony isn’t the suggestion of fewer books, but that in a world in which no one had more than a dozen books on their shelves, this book would not exist on any of them. And the kinds of books this book suggests are essentially self-help titles. [To be fair, I almost never read self-help books because they mostly (and certainly in this case) leave me feeling like I would having come from a fortuneteller – i.e. feeling lighter in the wallet, but no wiser in the mind.]

This isn’t a bad book, but I think most readers can do better.

"Ten Foot Square Hut" is universally acclaimed to be one of the great masterpieces of Japanese literature. It is also an autobiography of a man who spent fifteen years of his life inhabiting a space that was just 3 metres square. Kamo no Chomei was born in an opulent family and initially led a life of grandeur. Bequeathed a large estate by his grandmother, Chomei lacked for nothing. However indiscriminate friendships and ill advised monetary dealings led him to financial ruin. His fall from grace and means was so steep that he was forced to construct a hut with his own bare hands and forage for food on a daily basis. His 'abode' was an isolated land's end near the hills of Toyama. Rotting leaves nestled on the roof while moss sprouted out the floor. He lay down every night on a pile of bracken and the hut was bereft of even a single piece of furniture. However it was in such abject poverty that Chomei found wealth. It was sitting in such sparse and harsh environs that he composed his mesmerising work. When he says "I love my little hut, my simple dwelling", the reader can almost visualise a man clad in tattered rags yet wearing a contended disposition; a man living in utter darkness yet exuding a beatific aura.

"A Simpler Life" an upcoming work from the house "The School of Life" is a primer on how to lead an uncomplicated life. The School of Life is a global organisation that has as its objective the furtherance of efforts expended in leading fulfilled lives. Lest the reader be misguided, "A Simpler Life" does not advocate abdication of all material riches and retreating to the confines of a meagre dwelling a la Chomei. It does however encourage its readers to embrace a concept known as "voluntary poverty". Even though the term reads novel, it's practice has stood the test of time and temptation. The Roman statesman Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus (519-430 BC) was disgusted by a devious and materialistic world. Substituting palatial mansions for a plough, Cincinnatus retired to a life of idyllic farming. Even when Rome was threatened by external aggression, Cincinnatus briefly returned to his erstwhile world, staved off the threat before fleeing back to his isolated farm. A more contemporaneous example is that of the late Canadian artist Agnes Martin. In spite of churning out art that commanded millions by way of consideration, she preferred to lead a reclusive life in a tiny self-constructed mud brick-house in New Mexico.

“A Simpler Life” advocates the removal of avoidable complications from life so as to make it eminently livable. For example when two individuals are engaged in courtship, the tendency is to snuffle the real interests at the altar of “accommodation”. Only when they get married do the oblivious couple realise the danger of incompatibility. A degree of simple honesty would go a great deal in arresting an undesirable future situation. Express your aversion to museums when goaded to visit one, but do so in a manner that is frank and respectful. Set your expectations right and correct. Similarly contrasting philosophies representing a generation gap characterise relationship between parents and their children. It pays for both to speak out their minds, agreeing to disagree and reach a middle ground. Non-interference and at times even separate existence might work wonders in furthering good relations and repairing those that are slowly but surely and steadily going downhill.

While these are dollops of wisdom that have been preached and practiced for a long time, the appeal of the book lies in the simplicity (no pun intended) with which they are conveyed and real life examples that serve as eye-openers. The book also appeals to its readers to abhor pretentiousness and to stop leading lives for the singular purpose of obtaining approval and accord of others. Thus there is a stampeded to read the book that is on everyone’s bookshelves after winning a prestigious prize and a mad rush to get immersed in a movie that is the rage of its day. Even if the book does not make a jot of sense and the movie is more powerful than an anesthetic in inducing sleep, there is great hesitancy to admit the fact because doing so would make the person an “Other”, an exception from an “acceptable” norm.

I can personally relate to the example dealing with books. Influenced a great deal by a cryptic podcast, I armed myself with ‘Infinite Jest’, Ulysses’, ‘A Confederacy of Dunces’ and ‘A Suitable Boy’. After infinite attempts at giving the quartet a read, I finally realised the futility of my endeavours and gave up the seductive allure of being one of those ‘choice’ people who had chewed, swallowed and digested these supposed masterpieces.
Interestingly the book also warns against traveling just for the sake of it. Just to satiate bucket lists and jump on the tourist bandwagon we seem to have made travel an absolute necessity and a chore. Instead, one would do well to absorb the sage advice imparted by the French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal. “The sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he cannot stay quietly in his room.” However this does not mean locking oneself up in the confines of a room until eternity like the unfortunate character in Charlotte Perkins Gillman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”. All that the book requires is bouts of contemplation instead of aimless wandering.
Finally the book concludes with a plea to reconsider the phrase “retire early”. One must not aim to confine this term purely in connection with professional responsibilities. There must be a conscious effort to retire from perusing unnecessary wants, accumulating untold material possessions, and attending unwanted parties and congregations.

“A Simple Life” – a primer to selfless living.

(A Simpler Life by The School Of Life is published by The School Of Life and will be available for sale from the 31st May, 2022)

Thank You Net Galley for the Advance Reviewer Copy

I was initially interested in this book because minimalism and simplicity are concepts that fascinate me. Following watching The Minimalists documentary a few years ago, it's a choice that has always appealed to me. It's easy to be overwhelmed by complexity in our society. Everyone wants everything all the time and it's taxing. Relationships, family, living, possessions. It all takes a toll one way or another. I suspected that this book would be a really good starting point for those willing to make small changes in their lives to make a huge difference to their sense of self and mental wellbeing and I suppose in some ways it did meet that criteria.

That being said, I feel like as a whole, it largely fell flat.

This book reads as if it was written for the self-serving, the elite, those of us with the kind of money to put ourselves in what this book deems as "voluntary poverty". I personally found this term a bit gross. It romanticises the notion of living with nothing when for the vast majority in poverty, this is not a choice. This book is for the rich and the bored and I struggle to have my mind changed on that fact. It reads more like a history lesson than a guiding book and frankly, it's very cliche. It has nothing of substance. It recommends that the reader should read less because we only read a lot to know everything, an absolutely nonsense notion if you ask me. Overall, I just don't think this book achieved anything that it wanted too and I don't think I gained any insight from it other than being mildly annoyed.

If you're interested in quality content on how to simplify your life in ways, check out the likes of The Minimalists and Matt D'Alleva on Youtube.

I thought this book would be different. I couldn't really 'get into the book. I felt like I was in a history lesson when I first started reading the Introduction and I only got to the first chapter. This book would be good for my teenager to read. This book just wasn't for me.

A Simpler Life, written by members of The School of Life, aims to address several key ideas as a helpful starting point in pursuing a "simpler life." Unfortunately, this self-help book never goes deeper than surface level: in an effort to simplify life, the author(s) simplify human nature, as well as the institutional barriers that obstruct happiness in the minimalist tradition.

A Simpler Life brings up interesting historical perspectives to minimalism, but jumps into cookie-cutter platitudes so quickly that I'm left unconvinced of the value their take on simplicity holds. The book technically tackles how simplicity can be manifested in our relationships, our social lives, our physical homes, and more for a more peaceful experience. Very rarely does it tell us something we don't already implicitly know, though, and it never answers the real question when it comes to simplicity in our lives: yeah, we all know what we could do for a Simpler Life, but how are we supposed to accomplish that practically in our own lives?

A Simpler Life also seems to ignore: the cultural value of things (comparing Montezuma's ceremonial dress with Rockefeller's extravagant New York architecture isn't a good look); the near impossibility it is to reject monetary gain as a goal in a society that values monetary production above all else; and the nuance and diversity of the human experience in seeking "simplicity." This book seems to assume that everyone living a "less simple life" has the same characteristics, and those who successfully pursue a simple life are doing the same things for that fulfillment.

You might find this book helpful if you're secretly a millionaire — voluntary poverty is an actual thing they discuss as a potential pathway, which is just indicative of a privilege most of us don't have — but otherwise, there are other books out there that tackle these topics in a much deeper and fulfilling way. My guess is that A Simpler Life could have been added to the ranks of these books if it had chosen one sub-topic and addressed it meaningfully, rather than attempting to address several in less than 200 pages.

A Simpler Life is a very short sort of how-to guide about leading a simpler life. It suggests you take a look at things in your life, both items and people and work out what exactly you need and what having less in quantity but richer items would bring to your life. It's not overly preachy and is an interesting enough quick read.

"A Simpler Life" is a practical and inspiring book for anyone interested in living, well...more simply.

Even though the book was not written in the first person, it contained many examples throughout history of people who led simple lives. I enjoyed reading the historical perspectives. It was a refreshing change from the first-person anecotes that can be found in many personal development books on the market today.

The book covered five main topics: relationships, social life, lifestyle, work and culture. Within each topic were numerous subtopics to reflect upon.

I would not consider "A Simpler Life" a step-by-step how-to manual, but a "soul-level-facilitator" to help the reader analyze their own life, habits and practices.

I don't often re-read books. This one is worth having on hand to read multiple times and reference.

I was drawn to the core premise of *A Simpler Life* by Ryan Bartaby (The School of Life), which is to act as a guide to seeking simplicity in various aspects of life – relationships, social life, lifestyle, work, and culture. In this respect, the book moves beyond encouraging solely the decluttering of physical things as the means to simplify ones life.

It is a short book with many brief chapters. *A Simpler Life* attempts to be simple in form but, in some places comes across as merely superficial. As soon as I began reading, I immediately noticed the lack of research or evidence to support statements. Many claims are made that appear to be an opinion of the author turned into a generalisation. For example, Bartaby claims that many people in long-term relationships are 'frustrated and disappointed' by their partner. Here I would have liked to have seen some evidence for this statement – I know from my own personal experience that I do not feel this way about my husband, and I'm sure many others feel the same way. Perhaps a statistic about people being unhappy in relationships would have bode better here?

That said, the book does have some good qualities: I did appreciate that it dealt with the idea of simpler relationships and a simpler social life. I enjoyed the chapter on 'How to live in a hut', because here the author tackles an example in a bit more detail than in some of the earlier chapters.

Overall, though, I was disappointed by its superficiality and I think the book would have benefited from the incorporation of a lot more research, and less sweeping general claims.

A well written and thoughtful book. Short chapters that can be read and understood and with ideas that you are able to put into practice.
I will be looking out for more books by the school of life.
Thank you netgalley

I’ve read a few of the School of life books and regularly watch the videos. This book is my favourite to date. Every chapter made me stop and pause. Two quotes in particular stood out for me. The first on the news. “There’s so much ‘news’ we need to know in order to flourish; so little of it happened in the last few hours.” And the second on travel, “ that the pleasure we derive from journeys is perhaps dependent more on the mindset with which we travel than on the destination we travel to.”
I will now read the news and how to travel, and start my reflection journal.
This book really helped me to kickstart an old habit I’ve been slack doing. Journaling.
Thank you School of Life for your work. It’s inspirational.
Highly recommend.

As some who has a love of clutter unfortunately to an unhealthy degree and wants to try to learn to simplify their lives to focus on the more important simple things this is the book for you!
Premise
The modern world can be a complicated, frenzied, and noisy place, filled with too many options, products, ideas and opinions. That explains why what many of us long for is simplicity: a life that can be more pared down, peaceful, and focused on the essentials.

But finding simplicity is not always easy; it isn’t just a case of emptying out our closets or trimming back commitments in our diaries. True simplicity requires that we understand the roots of our distractions – and develop a canny respect for the stubborn reasons why things can grow complex and overwhelming.

This book is a guide to the simpler lives we crave and deserve. It considers how we might achieve simplicity across a range of areas. Along the way, we learn about Zen Buddhism, modernist architecture, monasteries, psychoanalysis, and why we probably don’t need more than three good friends or a few treasured belonging

I enjoyed this well written book about improving the quality of life and creating a more peaceful existence by simplifying some areas. It covers topics such as how to care less about the news, how to travel less, how to have simpler relationships and good materialism. The book in itself is simply laid out, with short, concise chapters and lends itself well to the reduction of our carbon footprint and re-focusing in a stressful world. Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

While this book is about being simple, it is anything but. The author goes into great detail about how you can simplify your life in every situation and scenario. If you feel overwhelmed then you will find solace with this book.