Amazon.in:Customer reviews: Essential: Essays by The Minimalists

There are 0 reviews and 7 ratings from India

Roberto M. Barros

A very good essay collection by The Minimalists, several practical suggestions included

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 11 November 2021

As with many, I've got to know The Minimalists through Netflix, and was instantly hooked. Not in a radical way, but it definitely made me question a lot about the stuff I own.

So I soon looked for a book to go deeper and from them, this one seemed to me to be the most practical, fact, suggestion oriented. I wanted to get tips on how to reduce my stuff, clutter, to put into practice and things like that.

This is a book of essays they published on their blogs... many will provide great practical suggestions (the one where Josh put a bar to do pullups at the bottom of the stairs so he has to exercuse every time he goes down is amazing), many will be cool stories about their lives, others will be more philosophical but still make you question a lot. And a few were less appealing as they entered some generic self help platitudes.

The other great aspect of this book is you can read chapter by chapter easily, jump among them and then come back to the ones you feel can add practical changes to your life.

And the authors are not patronizers, know-it-all types... they actually write it clearly that there is not one single path to Minimalist perfection and that even their journey may not be right. What is important to them may not be important to you, and they are not radicals in the sense that you must get rid of all your stuff or things like that.

The point is to question what really adds value to your life, and most of what you have in fact does not. I've bought an eletric pressure cooker thinking I'd eat better with it... used it a couple of times. I've a Nespresso coffee maker that I use 4-5 times a day. The former does not add value to me, the latter is my greatest purchase of the last 2 years. And if you put everything you have under this prism, it becomes clear that for everything that you actually need, you have 3-5 other things you really don't.

One of my favorite suggestions from the book is the 20-20 rule... that pretty much anything they did not take with them to a trip would take 20 minutes and cost less than USD 20 to get if they actually needed it. It's an amazing way to put that we carry (and own) so much unnecessary stuff just in case we need it, usually forgetting that if they are really necessary (99% of times they are not), we can get them quickly, easily and cheaply.

Some people may be too literal or become radicals after reading their books (or watching their documentary). But that's not their message... they are not asking people to not buy stuff, to quit high paying jobs, to leave their houses or to put everything into the trash.

They are just proposing that we critically question ourselves into the real need we have for the stuff we buy and that we avoid creating reasons to transform nice to haves into must haves. The answer is not the same for everyone, each one can find their own threshold (Joshua believes owning just one pair of jeans is enough, I believe I need 2 pairs). Find what is really makes your life better, get rid of the things that do not and spend less money while living a better life.

3 people found this helpful

Alejandro

Excelente estado

Reviewed in Mexico 🇲🇽 on 30 June 2022

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El libro llegó en excelente estado. Sin marcas ni dobleces ni abolladuras en el lomo. Llegó a tiempo y envuelto en platico burbuja. Lo recomiendo.

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Tim

Yes you may have heard it before and yes you may need to hear it again

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 2 February 2018

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The message of the book is about living a deliberate life. That’s a philosophy we’ve picked up in many different ways from many different sources over probably as long as most of us have been alive and aware. However it’s easy to say, and not easy to keep being conscious of doing - and so it’s a process we keep getting reminded of doing rather than something we’ll just click with and forever after be. Exercise and relationships are the same. Good news is you can be lousy at it one day and then ‘worlds best’ the next!

One of the tools of living a deliberate life is minimising possessions, both tangible and intangible (e.g., friends you hardly know on Facebook, contacts you definitely don’t know on LinkedIn and music you never ever listen to on your phone). This is really cathartic and I have minimalised a lot while reading the book and yes, not for the first time either, but, as they say in the book, it isn’t the point in itself. You could have loads of possessions and still be living a deliberate life in the same way you could be a stock trader and still be perfectly centred in the moment as much as any yoga guru.

Just one example for me where possessions did get in the way (maybe apply your obsession here if you can’t identify with this one!) was with headphones. I love music but realised most of the time was spent thinking and playing with the headphones and - even worse dear god - watching reviews of headphones on YouTube! So my actual pastime was watching reviews of something that in itself was only a tool for doing what was actually supposed to be the real pastime! Now that’s not so bad and can be a fun diversion in the same way as drinking tea and munching biscuits while watching a bit of reality TV - but when it becomes the main thing in your life?? Now I didn’t have many headphones to start with, have reduced these down, still have too many, but the point is if I only had one pair then there’s no more anxiety about choosing, no more trying different pairs to see how each sound with the same section of one track, and I’m then back to listening just to the music rather than the headphones.

All the essence of this kind of dilemma and un-deliberate living is what this book is about so while you could say ‘Okay got the point, don’t need to buy the book then’, it’s a helpful accompaniment in the same way as going to exercise classes is a helpful accompaniment to getting fit, or writing a journal is a helpful accompaniment to reflecting on your life. Some of the essays are a bit repetitive, some you get the depth of their point and say ‘Ahh . . . yea! . . .’ and then immediately forget it again even though they say you will get the point and say ‘Ah, yea’ and then forget it again, and some of the essays you can immediately make sense of and do something about (e.g., try packing ALL your possessions away as if moving house and then only get out what you need as you need them).

Read the book, it is worth your time and money even if you already get the point - the real point is living as good a life as you can while you can.

12 people found this helpful

Denise Guerriero

I value this book so immensely.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 12 December 2020

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I can’t remember the last time I wrote an Amazon review if I ever have. But I’m rereading this book for the 3rd or 4th time and I just felt an overwhelming desire to express my support for The Minimalists and what they have created. I’m 28 and have been suffering from pretty difficult mental disorders for the past few years (I’m talking dissociative and personality disorders that have altered my everyday life). Finding minimalism 1 1/2 years ago was so liberating. It felt like a couple aspects of my life became more manageable which was tear evoking when everything was crumbling and my daily functioning suffered greatly.
Anyway, the reason I wanted to give some back story is because this book is such a great collection of not only their essays (which I personally don’t really read so all this was new content to me despite it having similarities to other books on minimalism which is bound to happen) but also just an awesome collection of inspiration and food for thought when you need it. I’ve read all three of their books and each one is amazing in its own way. I feel like they convey their message with such passion but also such simplicity, fitting for a book on minimalism. I saw some people complain about the repetitiveness. I have to say that I didn’t find it overly repetitive and the messages that were repeated were done so for emphasis. Some books I read over and over because I enjoy and want to soak in the message. I feel like this book does well to do this in an appropriate manner that doesn’t feel redundant.
I would recommend this book to anyone considering reading it. To me, it’s such a comfy feel good book that still challenges me. What I mean is that it’s a book that I pick up when I’m having a rough week and need a really good book to grab my attention in a healthy way. Although I’m rereading it all the way through for the 3rd time it’s a book I often pick up and just read some sections of at my convenience and due to its format it’s extremely easily to pick it up on any page from time to time. I can’t wait for their new book Love People Use Things coming out next year!!

5 people found this helpful

Emanuele

Good gift idea

Reviewed in Italy 🇮🇹 on 16 April 2022

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Good book

MicheleStitches

Encouraged and Inspired!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 26 August 2012

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I have been doing a good deal of reading and research on the subject of minimalism lately. The Minimalists' blog is one of my favorite sources of encouragement as my family goes through the process of reducing and simplifying. You don't have to be young or single to make major life changes like this. I am a 46-year old mother of 7 (some who have grown up and moved out.) We are seriously paring down our possessions to only those things that are truly useful or bring us joy. We can't wait to put our house on the market and down-size considerably. I can not begin to tell you how liberating that is! Contrary to what popular culture professes, we are finding that the less we have, the more content we become.

This collection of essays is an "easy" read, (I read through it in a 24-hour period,) but don't let that fool you. It is full of big ideas -- ideas that you can chew on for a lifetime. These writers may be young, and their writing style is still developing, but take it for what it is and enjoy their enthusiasm and down-to-earth language. If your tastes run more towards high-brow literary works, you might want to stick with Thoreau. To be honest, much of the content can be found on The Minimalists blog, but I didn't mind a bit, nor did I feel cheated, as that is what I expected. It is nice to have these essays put together in book form. I am seriously considering getting some hard copies to give away to friends.

5 people found this helpful

Cameron

Great ideas, spoken many times over

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 18 February 2014

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I recently got interested in The Minimalists and their work and ideas. They're full of good ideas. So with that I decided I'd try diving deeper into their works and it seemed hard to go wrong with something entitled "Essential Essays" particularly when it was remarkably affordable.

The book is, as it suggests, a series of essays mostly written by Joshua Fields Millburn and most (as it seems) were written near the start of their journey together. Perhaps it was because I was taken by the short video on their website introducing their ideas that I was primed for a specific kind of book, but because of that I was disappointed because this was not that book. The opening few essays are great and set the stage for a big upheaval in two young mens lives. It is written well and feels like something your friend would write to you in an email or letter. I really liked the start.

But over the course of the book the essays devolve into more self-help style "do" (or, to use their term, "must") statements and, while they try to acknowledge that there are lots of ways to be minimalist, the rhetoric gets rather pedantic at times. That's too bad, because the intent is definitely positive and the message is a useful one. Another issue with the book is that, being culled from other works, we see a lot of repetition. By 2/3rds of the way through you're a little tired of hearing that Joshua and Ryan left six-figure jobs and were working 70 hours a week. It might not be so if you read one of these essays on its own, but as a collection its poorly curated for a book form.

The basic premise is good, the ideas are pretty solid and, when not speaking at you but to you, the book has enough redeeming qualities to read. It's a short collection and very reasonably priced so still worth picking up.

71 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Powerful message

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 5 January 2017

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I have listened to their Ted talks, their podcasts and I have read a lot of essays from their website. This book, while some of its contents are on the website and Josh likes to read specific excerpts on the podcast, is worth every penny. I'm only halfway through it right now, but I'm getting so much value, Josh and Ryan would appreciate the word choice there, out of these essays already. I think the best words to sum up the message in this book is that life should be "intentional" and "meaningful", and those are some powerful words when you apply them to everything, even the little things like whether to turn on the TV when you're having breakfast. If you think you have to live life a certain way, or if you're stuck in a routine of meaningless habits and empty conversations, this is a great resource to get you thinking about how you can live your life in a more positive and rewarding way. It's not going to tell you how to declutter or tidy up your home better, look for books or articles on the KonMari method for that, but it will open your eyes to how much of your time is spent on things, or the aspiration to accumulate more things, which will actually clutter your life and mind.

So the take away is buy this book if you want to live a more intentional life.

Owain Thompson

Made Good Use of Repetition

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 22 April 2012

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I've been a regular reader of theminimalists.com for about a month. I was excited to get a free look at this book and sink my teeth a bit deeper into the meat of minimalism.

I was a bit let down to find out that, with the exception of two essays, all of this material had already appeared as blog posts. That doesn't mean the content isn't good, but I'd read about half of the essays already.

One surprise I had from reading all the essays in the authors' defined order: lots of repetition. While repetition might not make for the most interesting read, it did drive home the main points of these essays in a meaningful way. For two guys who want to add value to other people's lives through the virtues of minimalism, I thought this was an excellent use of a literary device. I've got the major tenets of minimalism down cold now, I think.

There were a few typos/formatting issues within the main body of the essays that came across as sloppy to me. Happily, this doesn't distract greatly from the message.

For the current price (free), this collection of essays is a steal. Should it sport a price tag once more, I still believe it would be a worthwhile investment.

Angelica

Inspiring

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 22 October 2021

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I found a lot helpful parts in this books that I will come back to reread to remember what is important. Some parts I could not relate, which is ok. I am trying to adopt minimalist lifestyle for a couple years now, but this book helped me with WHY? And how to let go.

5 star		76%
4 star		15%
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