One of my goals in 2020 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.
My parents had long talked about The Good Life by Scott and Helen Nearing. When I asked for sustainable living books recs, they both suggested it again.
In the 1930s Scott and Helen Nearing leave thier intellectual city life for the Vermont countryside and never look back.
The Good Life is part memoir, part instruction manual, part social experiment observations. But whatever it is, this book is like life goals for me! Just the idea of bucking societal norms and living the life you feel good about is an amazing concept. But even more inspiring is that they did all this within the confines of society in so many ways. For someone like myself, this book is a game changer. Although dated in some ways the basic principle are sound and so inspiring. The techniques and ideas will never be out of style for myself and those who strive to live a good life, free from the limitations of our modern, wasteful, automated, disposable, uncaring, selfish society. And the idea that one can do so in harmony with that world is truly a revelation. I don’t see myself building stone buildings in the near future but reading about the way this community did the planning, design, and hard work was just as important as the plan for the buildings and construction themselves. The Nearings do every task, every goal, every movement with mindful intention and consideration. Once they lived for ten years honing these principles, ideals, relationships with friends, building blocks, and working within the limits of country state and society, while still living separate from them as well, Scott and Helen leave VT and start all over again in Maine. There, they wrote the second book in this series. I have only read the first book so far, but certainly plan to read the next as well. I would HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone interesting in living a sustainable lifestyle, those looking for avenues to escape some or all of the issues of the modern day, those interested in self sufficiency, growing a garden, building structures, and anyone longing and looking to live by their own ideals and moral compass rather than the one set out for them.
Have you read any life changing books this year?