the art of being minimalist: a review
I’ve read a lot of half-baked ebooks that were essentially PDF’s full of blog articles. I don’t like wasting money to read something that I could have read for free with minimal effort. While I concede that the medium of an ebook is conducive to blog-esque content, I expect ebooks to feel polished. When an ebook is polished AND filled with interesting information, that’s an added bonus.
Everett Bogue of Far Beyond the Stars is one of the rising writers and thinkers in the minimalism niche. His recent ebook “The Art of Being Minimalist” was released last week. I’m a little bit behind the times as I have seen a multitude of reviews already fanning out across the web, but I wanted to make sure I took the time to really read and digest what Everett has to say. I’ll admit, even though I’m a “simplicity blogger” I’m generally very skeptical of ebooks in this genre. A lot of the time it seems like the same ten or fifteen ideas are batted around between bloggers and nothing new is ever added. While Everett certainly isn’t immune to this, he adds personal anecdotes and his own flair that gives the advice a new perspective. I like being able to read something and get a sense of what kind of person the author is while also coming away with new knowledge. The extreme personal nature of blogs (and by proxy, ebooks) allows for this revelation of the individual more than a traditional book, in my opinion, and Everett takes advantage of this.
“The Art of Being Minimalist” covers a little bit of everything, including all the basics about the reasons for becoming minimalist, the principles behind minimalism, and a multitude of “tips and tricks” for starting to live a more minimal lifestyle. I like that Everett touched on the larger issues behind minimalism as well as the concrete actions you could do immediately. Having both frames of reference helps give this ebook lasting value as well as an immediate guide to changing your life.
The true test of any book is whether I was left with anything to say after finishing the last sentence. As I read, I found myself both shaking and nodding my head, writing “YES!” and “NO!” in my notes, and filling my own idea coffers with all sorts of material from the depths of this ebook. This is not the perfect ebook and you may not agree with everything Everett writes. However, few, if any, pieces of writing can claim perfection and this is a PDF that I plan to keep on my hard drive and will eagerly be open again in the future.
Since I found this ebook to bring value to my own life, I have decided to enroll in Everett’s affiliate program. For every ebook you buy through this link (or any other link to the ebook on thesimplerlife.net), I will receive 50% commission. I take my readership’s trust very seriously and would be very uneasy endorsing anything I hadn’t read or tried myself. I can tell you that Everett’s ebook is a professional, polished (I would even say beautiful), thought provoking, and helpful piece of writing. I give it my recommendation and I am looking eagerly to the future to see what Everett will develop next.
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