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Title: The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It: The Complete Back-To-Basics Guide by John Seymour, Will Sutherland ISBN: 0-7894-9332-2 Publisher: DK Publishing Pub. Date: April, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.6 (5 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: How to get back to the land...
Comment: As a family that has abandoned the city and suburbs for the countryside, the very presence of a book like John Seymour's "The Self-sufficient Life and How to Live It" is enough to inspire fits of joy. A perfect companion to works like Hemenway's "Gaia's Garden" and Mollison's "Permaculture: A Designer's Manual," this book is a must for would-be urbanites fleeing the cities. Covering every topic relevant to self-sufficient, sustainable living and farm life, Seymour's classic provides a great way to start a different life. An update from the venerable mid-Seventies edition of the book, this 2002 release is a fine improvement.
The book has quite a bit going for it:
1. Beautifully made, illustrated and laid-out, this book is meant to last and be used readily and often. Typical Dorling Kindersley quality.
2. An eye-friendly typeface and bright, semi-gloss pages make this easy reading.
3. The shear breadth of the information here is outstanding. Packed into 306 letter-sized pages are the following chapters:
*The Meaning of Self-Sufficiency
*Food from the Garden
*Food from Animals
*Food from the Fields
*Food from the Wild
*In the Dairy
*In the Kitchen
*Brewing & Wine-making
*Energy & Waste
*Crafts & Skills
*Things You Need to Know
4. Good specifics on all the categories of info listed above. You should be able to get started on your way to being people of the soil. Need to know how to kill, gut, and prepare your cattle? It's in here. Got a hankering to get off the electrical grid altogether? Helpful windmill buying advice is here. Can't tell rye from barley? You will after reading this book.
5. A helpful list of contacts and companies that can get you started on your dream are included.
But there are issues amid all this helpful advice:
1. The book makes some references to US-specific qualifiers on info, but it is quintessentially British. Some of the very helpful info simply does not apply to American would-be farmers.
2. There's a lot of the "green" credo here. Some of it is a bit condescending to anyone who doesn't share the author's opinions of life outside the farm. How well the reader handles this is up to the reader.
3. While the book is certainly comprehensive, considering how complex a shift from urban to rural living can be, it could have gone even deeper. (I know that I still had questions.) The book probably could have been twice its length and would still be a bargain.
4. Much of the advice here comes from a lone methodology for approaching self-sufficiency. Despite the update, there are some more cutting edge permaculture methods that can be more satisfying than what we find in Seymour's book.
All in all, despite the cons, this is a fine primer on self-sufficiency. Anyone looking to escape the rat race could hardly do better than to pick up a copy of "The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It."
Rating: 5
Summary: Self Sufficient Life and How to Live It by Seymour
Comment: This is an excellent purchase if your intention is to live
on a farm and survive off the land. The author defines self-
sufficiency and then goes about presenting hundreds of examples
of how to perform every kind of survival task. There is a
section on how to tie knots. The work describes brewing,
power generation from H2 O , as well as the wind. An entire
section describes soil types; such as, heavy clay, loam,
sand, peat and sowing seeds in late spring. This work is perfect
for the city person who knows nothing about basic survival
in the country or the wilderness. The author teaches virtually
every basic skill applicable to living outdoors. The book
is a worthy addition to any personal library.
Rating: 5
Summary: Self-Dufficient Life and How To Live It
Comment: I came across this book in the library. Great pictures. Author John Seymour did his homework, he must have read "The Blank Slate" by Steven Pinker - lots of those great calendar pictures that humans universally love. Farmland and field, birdie and squirrel, makes you feel good; all warm and fuzzy inside.
Mr. Seymour is far too politicaly correct for my taste. He seems to enjoy lecturing us on how wonderful his self-sufficient life is and how deficient a life we city-dwellers lead.
This book will teach you how to kill and gut your chicken, and if you can handle that, read on to learn how to kill and dress your lamb. It is much easier learning how to make your own soap - that is far easier, did you know, than coming across that bottle of maple syrup. (That's one unintended message that comes across in this book: Thank God for the modern city-life and the supermarket).
There is information on Dyeing and Weaving, Curing and Tanning, Making Bricks and Tiles. There is information on 101 things we take for granted in our everday city-world. It is thus my kind of book, and the book for every Renaissance man and woman.
Seymour's work is a signature type; a bible that belongs in every home. It is pleasing to page through, and informative in a way that connects us to the majesty of life. As a practical matter, this would be the book to have when the lights go out and civilization needs to reinvent maple syrup.
It is a dreamers book, and a book for those interested in how their ancestor lived. Finally, this is a book we who take much for granted, for the P.C. lecture that takes is the one showing how truly dependent modern-man has become.
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Title: The Forgotten Arts and Crafts by John Seymour ISBN: 0789458470 Publisher: DK Publishing Pub. Date: April, 2001 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Five Acres and Independence by Maurice G. Kains ISBN: 0486209741 Publisher: Dover Pubns List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: Storey's Basic Country Skills: A Practical Guide to Self-Reliance by M. John Storey, Deborah Burns, Storey Books ISBN: 1580172024 Publisher: Storey Books Pub. Date: September, 1999 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Back to Basics: How to Learn and Enjoy Traditional American Skills by Readers Digest ISBN: 0895779390 Publisher: Readers Digest Pub. Date: March, 1997 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: Slef- Sufficient GAR/ by John Seymour ISBN: 038514671X Publisher: Main Street Books Pub. Date: 09 February, 1979 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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