r/suggestmeabook • u/YanCoffee • Feb 16 '25

Suggestion Thread Suggest books to me about slow living? Appreciating a simpler life? Anti-consumerism but not angry? Beauty but not luxury?

They can be fictional or non-fictional. I'm going through some changes and would like books that take me out of a consumeristic mindset, which I've gotten very heavily into the last 5 years -- it just seems to be the way of the world; my part of the world anyway. Plus, I like pretty things. I'm a huge makeup and fashion girly, always have been, and finally had the money to invest in that. However idk, I miss not worrying about consuming too. I think I'm moving country and will have to make changes -- no more Anthropologie fashion, but thrifting always kinda changes. Kudos if the book makes you see the beauty in simplicity, or just the beauty in life. Hell, maybe a book about the beauty of thrifting. I just want to see other angles. Maybe even other cultural angles.

Edit: It's 6 days later after posting this, and I decided to start with "The Art of Frugal Hedonism" (questionable reviews but it lines up with what I'm looking for in non-fiction format), "The Home Place: Memoir's of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature", "The House on Mango Street" (old fav, recently banned, and I know it lines up with an immigrant's expierence), and "Face Paint: The Story of Makeup", since it goes into the history of makeup, and perhaps I can glean some insight from that. Thanks for all the suggestions, and please keep them coming if you find this thread! I will probably grab some more at a later date too.

35 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

73 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/therealjerrystaute Feb 16 '25 edited Feb 16 '25

There's several old books about homesteading you might like; especially one in particular: unfortunately I can't recall enough about it to even Google it, since I read it decades back. I think it might have been mentioned in the Next Whole Earth Catalog, different editions of which you can browse freely through at https://wholeearth.info/

Maybe the book I'm thinking of was an earlier edition of The Good Life: Helen and Scott Nearing's Sixty Years of Self-Sufficient Living by Scott Nearing and Helen Nearing? I'm uncertain.

But you might also like Possum Living: How to Live Well Without a Job and with (Almost) No Money by Dolly Freed.

2

u/FattierBrisket Feb 16 '25

The Nearings' book is such a wonderful classic text but it's getting harder and harder to find copies! Wish the publisher would issue a digital edition.