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A review by reubenhcomic
Stuffocation: Living More with Less by James Wallman
4.0
Since being introduced to Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus - The Minimalists via their book [b:Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life|13185350|Minimalism Live a Meaningful Life|Joshua Fields Millburn|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1329640817s/13185350.jpg|18366045] and blog a little over a year ago, I've had a growing interest in the idea of minimalism as well as a growing awareness of my own hoarder-esque tendencies.
However after reading Minimalism I was left a little underwhelmed. Although it had a positive message at it's core, it's all delivered through the personal anecdotes and smug philosophies of the authors. Rather than the useful, informative guide to minimalism that I hoped for, it presents very little of the practicalities of minimalism, and basically serves as a personal pseudo-motivational manifesto of the two authors. Many of the chapters are simply essays from their blog copied across verbatim (and without spell-checking apparently). There is a lot of positive, interesting and challenging stuff in the book, you just have to sift through a lot of wank to find it.
So given my disappointment with Minimalism, when I began reading James Wallman's Stuffocation I was a little concerned to find that the introduction begins with the very same story that Fields Millburn and Nicodemus tell in the first chapter of their book. It's the story of how Fields Millburn, dissatisfied with his successful career and material wealth, conducted a drastic experiment to box up and get rid of every material possession apart from the few things he used within a three week period - the bare minimum.
It's an understandable opening for both books, it's an inspirational story - albeit not a very practical one for most people - and a perfect example to represent the shift in values away from materialism that Wallman describes over the course of the book. Fortunately that's where the books' similarities end.
Unlike the minimalists, Wallman offers an in depth, and exhaustively researched analysis of the problems emerging from western material culture, from a global scale, down to the individual. He uses the puntastic title as a short-hand for these problems: the economic and environmental stress, and even damage to our physical health and safety caused by having too much stuff.
To explain Stuffocation, Wallman draws from case studies and personal stories such as that of Fields Millburn and other minimalist/experientialist bloggers, as well as solid scientific, economical and statistical data.
Not only that, he offers solutions - a variety of practical ideas that the reader can choose to implement; as well as a more societal solution, or rather a prediction of where society is already heading in response to these problems.
The result is a book that is part self-help, and part documentary.
Despite the myriad academic references Wallman draws from, the book is very readable, and doesn't struggle to hold your interest. It's a positive and optimistic look at the potentially smothering problem of Stuffocation. As a self-confessed hoarder, I highly recommend you buy it. In fact, buy a thousand.
However after reading Minimalism I was left a little underwhelmed. Although it had a positive message at it's core, it's all delivered through the personal anecdotes and smug philosophies of the authors. Rather than the useful, informative guide to minimalism that I hoped for, it presents very little of the practicalities of minimalism, and basically serves as a personal pseudo-motivational manifesto of the two authors. Many of the chapters are simply essays from their blog copied across verbatim (and without spell-checking apparently). There is a lot of positive, interesting and challenging stuff in the book, you just have to sift through a lot of wank to find it.
So given my disappointment with Minimalism, when I began reading James Wallman's Stuffocation I was a little concerned to find that the introduction begins with the very same story that Fields Millburn and Nicodemus tell in the first chapter of their book. It's the story of how Fields Millburn, dissatisfied with his successful career and material wealth, conducted a drastic experiment to box up and get rid of every material possession apart from the few things he used within a three week period - the bare minimum.
It's an understandable opening for both books, it's an inspirational story - albeit not a very practical one for most people - and a perfect example to represent the shift in values away from materialism that Wallman describes over the course of the book. Fortunately that's where the books' similarities end.
Unlike the minimalists, Wallman offers an in depth, and exhaustively researched analysis of the problems emerging from western material culture, from a global scale, down to the individual. He uses the puntastic title as a short-hand for these problems: the economic and environmental stress, and even damage to our physical health and safety caused by having too much stuff.
To explain Stuffocation, Wallman draws from case studies and personal stories such as that of Fields Millburn and other minimalist/experientialist bloggers, as well as solid scientific, economical and statistical data.
Not only that, he offers solutions - a variety of practical ideas that the reader can choose to implement; as well as a more societal solution, or rather a prediction of where society is already heading in response to these problems.
The result is a book that is part self-help, and part documentary.
Despite the myriad academic references Wallman draws from, the book is very readable, and doesn't struggle to hold your interest. It's a positive and optimistic look at the potentially smothering problem of Stuffocation. As a self-confessed hoarder, I highly recommend you buy it. In fact, buy a thousand.