The Good Life: Amazon.ca: Scott Nearing, Helen Nearing: Books

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Book Description

This one volume edition of Living the Good Life and Continuing the Good Life brings these classics on rural homesteading together. This couple abandoned the city for a rural life with minimal cash and the knowledge of self reliance and good health.

From the Publisher

"Helen and Scott Nearing are the great-grandparents of the back-to-the-land movement, having abandoned the city in 1932 for a rural life based on self-reliance, good health, and a minimum of cash...Fascinating, timely, and wholly useful, a mix of the Nearings' challenging philosophy and expert counsel on practical skills."--Washington Post Book World

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Customer Reviews

22 Reviews

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

Average Customer Review

3.9 out of 5 stars (22 customer reviews)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Our Way or the Highway, Oct 28 2002

By

Tzvi Heber "tzvi2" (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Good Life (Paperback)

While I admire the Nearings for dropping out of urban society and making it on their own in rural Vermont way before it was fashionable to do so, I found their tone to be didactic in the extreme, and their attitude (we are the only ones on the planet who know exactly how to live, work, play, eat, sleep, breathe etc. correctly) to be annoying.

The book gives no real practical knowledge of homesteading, other than a densely written, obtuse chapter on building with stone. It also actively disparages the rural culture and traditions of the people around their homestead. The Nearings are the only people who know anything (in their estimation), and the fact that the people around them don't bow down to them, and acquiesce to their every wish and demand, just proves that they are all dolts.

I also found it curious that despite the fact that the Nearings claimed not to use any animals on their homestead, there are two pictures of them in the book (at least in the 1970 edition I was reading) using a team of horses.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Not a how-to book, Aug 13 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Good Life (Paperback)

I was very interested in reading about a couple who took the plunge and homesteaded. I found the references to why they moved to the homestead interesting, but unfortunately, the rest of the book is interweaved with this philosophy as well as social issues. The practical is overshadowed or not explained in detail. The detail that is there focuses on what they did not how they did it. If you are looking for a how-to book, you should look elsewhere. I did find the section on health interesting and helpful. Also, the second section, "Continuing the Good Life" had some practical ideas on gardening. Overall the book was a disappointment, since I expected a how-to book not a philosophy book.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars not quite up to expectations, Dec 10 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Good Life (Paperback)

...although extremely interesting and informative, to the degree of familiarizing any prospective "homesteader" with making it on your own, I became disenchanted with the sophomoric attempts to whine about espousing a communal life on the neighbors or any others interested in simply living a "good life" as THEY see it and not become a disciple of the Nearings...

...it seems that Scott was rejected by the establishment of his day, and time and again you have this feeling of him snubbing his nose at anyone who doesn't laud him as the "promised one"...

...informative for the day in which it was written, I am still interested in establishing my own "good life" similar to the Nearings, and I appreciate what they did...but mine will allow others to live the way they choose, without me throwing a hefty amount of contemptuous disdain their way...

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Most recent customer reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Too Good to Be True
Since I am planning to retire in rural Ontario and grow my own food, I because fascinated by the Nearings. Read more

Published on Jan 30 2009 by Avid Reader

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading
This book is a reprint of two classics "Living the good life" and "Continuing the good life". In these books, Scott and Helen Nearing describe how they chose to live... Read more

Published on Jan 16 2004 by Erika Mitchell