Brooks Palmer

So, this was a nice "novel", haha. If you're looking for a book with tips, tricks and ideas, which is what I thought this was, look elsewhere; though the book contains some tips (exercises, of dubious results since I'm not into personification), mostly it's just a collection of (rather novelized) anecdotes that are meant to make you realize in a psychological-not-really way that everything is clutter and once you become a minimalist then you'll be thinner and happier instantly.

In this book everyone's eyes were glazed over and blinded with clutter and all that glazing lifted when he wittily (and sometimes rudely?) pointed out what that clutter was and then they miraculously realized the clutter for what it was, let it go, and a day later won the lottery (ok, not really, but there was a couple mention of later finding that dream job, or the dream boyfriend, or whatever). While I do believe there is a connection between those things and the action of letting go of the clutter, it put so much emphasis on it that it made it seem as if as soon as I threw everything out I would get my wish granted (and my eyes would be cleared, and the weight would be lifted from my shoulders and I'd immediately look thinner and happier and feel physically and emotionally marvelous!).

Also at the start of the book he repeated so very often how we were being bombarded by evil companies to buy, buy, buy, that I started losing track if he was trying to get me to buy or not buy things. (At this point I should mention I was half-listening to the audiobook, so when he kept jumping back and forth between "We're told to buy and we'll be happy" and "doesn't make us happy, don't buy" it was hard to keep track of which he was rooting for.)

About the audiobook itself, read by the author, I found he seemed to completely lack passion in the reading of his own material.

All that said... it's not a bad book, it has some interesting tidbits and things that you can take from it that isn't necessarily told as simply in other places, and it does help a little.… (meer)