To simplify your life is to enrich it. Discover the magic of simplicity in this international bestseller.
Biographical Notes
Dominique Loreau is a French essayist who has lived in Japan since the 1970s. After fully adopting the Japanese way of life, she now offers seminars for those who want to simplify their lives. L'art de la Simplicite was published in France in 2005 by Laffont and is an international bestseller. LArt De La Simplicité
I love the idea of the book. I find culture of consumption revolting and unfortunately I am part of it, but I'm determined to do and buy fewer and fewer unneeded things.
That said, this book is exactly what it advocates against owning: useless horrible crap of a book.
Narrative is absolutely random, there is no structure between chapters, between paragraphs, not even between sentences. Author contradicts herself all the time, and I don't mean small story details, she can't even get right what she wants from the world around her. She advocates simplicity and modesty explaining how Japanese live in super small space, supports living like monks. And then a page later she says to have the most expensive, comfortable, cozy, best furniture there is. And telling us that minimalism is expensive and we have to deal with it. She says we consume too much and then tells you have to have fridge and all bowls full with food to attract Chi.
I just couldn't keep reading. Minimalism, Self Help, Nonfiction الكاتبة فرنسية ..سكنت اليابان مدة طويلة
ظهر في كتابها تأثرها الكبير بالثقافة اليابانية
أسلوب الكتاب سلس مباشر
أحيانا أشعر بشيء من التكرار
لكن الأفكار التي تعرضها الكاتبة جيدة
وإن كانت تستشهد كثيرا بحديقة زن والمذهب البوذي..الذي تأثرت بطريقته
خطابها في الكتاب موجه للنساء وبما يوافق اهتمامات النساء
اهتمت بشكل كبير بالبساطة فيما حولك ..وجسمك وذهنك
كلامها فيه شيء كبير من المنطقية ..خصوصا البساطة فيما حولك..وكثيرا من أفكارها ناسبتني..وقرأته بحماس
ماعدا الباب الأخير الذي يتحدث عن الروحانيات والذهن ..استغرقت فيه وقتا طويلا وشعرت بشيء من الملل لتاثرها الشديد بالبوذية
.. لم أشعر بالندم على شراءه
Minimalism, Self Help, Nonfiction يستمد الكتاب عنوانه من الفصل الأول والذي تدعو فيه الكاتبة للعيش حياة
بسيطة من ناحية الملبس والأكل ..الخ والتخلص من ثقل الماديات وتكديس
الأشياء التي لا فائدة منها
تراوحت مشاعري أثناء القراءة بين الملل والسخط وسؤال ظل يقفز أمامي
بين الصفحة والثانية .. أما آن الأوان للتوقف عن قراءة كتب التنمية
ثم جاءت تلك الصفحات والتي تختص بعالم المرأة من نصائح للعناية بالبشرة
والجسم وطرق فقدان الوزن .. بتلك الصفحات توجد الكثير من النصائح
المفيدة صحيا ونفسيا قبل أن تكون جماليا وإن كان تطبيقها يحتاج لحياة ثانية
بعض النصائح كانت غريبة لتناقضها
ولوجود النصيحة وعكسها وجدت الكتاب غير مترابط بطرح الأفكار ومختلف
عن فكرة الكتاب الرئيسية بالنهاية الكتاب يتراوح بين الجيد والسيئ وبين
صفحات شدتني وأخرى قتلتني من الملل من كثرة التكرار والإعادة
وإن كنت من كارهي كتب التنمية + من الجنس الغير لطيف لا تفكر بقراءة الكتاب
Minimalism, Self Help, Nonfiction 3.5 stars
If you can get past the author's incessant references to expensive high-quality leather armchairs, pashmina shawls, and cashmere throws this is a wonderful book on living life with a minimalist philosophy.
Unlike Marie Kondo style books, this is not a how-to book on folding shirts or organizing closets. This is a book on what a minimalist life philosophy looks like in practice. How do you organize your life to live in a mindful, ascetic, simple and minimalist way. It's in the way you dress, treat yourself, style your house, engage with your friends and loved ones, work, think, and immerse yourself in the wider world.
There are some great quotes sprinkled throughout this book. I certainly highlighted lots of things, however, sometimes this veered from deep, insightful truths about life to frivolous pieces of advice. From basic information on handbags (it should look like Jackie Kennedy's), house decor (see the above on leather armchairs and cashmere), and your body routine (lots of oils, baths and dry brushing), to more esoteric discussions on meditation, zen, and engaging with people in a respectful and mindful fashion. It's almost as if this book wanted to both be a self-help book on minimalism, while also being a philosophy book at the same time and decided to split the difference.
I did have a few quibbles. This seems to be a book written exclusively for women, although men could read it, I'm not sure how much they'd get out of the advice. This also seems to be advice that only wealthy people could put into practice. There are a fair number of classist assumptions here. Not only in Loreau's emphasis on waiting and spending more money on quality things (a fine thing to do if you can), but on her discussions of work (don't do it if you don't have to), children (not really mentioned at all, nor are pets), time-management, relationships and more. Basically, if you are a wealthy, single woman, you can probably put this all into practice. If you have children, a partner, pets, or generally live a messier life (as most of us do) good luck with some of this ;)
Having said all that - I really loved some of what she had to say, and how she framed minimalism as a life philosophy that isn't just about things, but also about how you approach the world. Part I, chapter 2: In Praise of Minimalism, and Part III:Mind, were both the sections I would suggest if you'd like to read more on that. I also really appreciated her discussion of making time for yourself - after all, if you're not taking care of yourself, how will you take care of others? That's something many women ignore in favour of taking care of others - and being reminded of that is only a good thing. But, putting some of her self-care into practice may take more time than people are able (not willing, but able) to spend.
Overall - I liked this book. There are some great life gems sprinkled throughout. Just take some of her other advice with a grain of salt ;)
Do not abandon your dreams, or close your mind to mystery. To be happy, live simply.
Minimalism, Self Help, Nonfiction This was DNF - I got bored and annoyed about 30 pages in, did some skimming to find more ridiculousness, and gave up.
Such as - unattractive clothes make us gain weight? the Japanese are all perfect and own nothing? don't anything someone would want to steal?
Also, incredibly basic tips like use a dishcloth, clean your house, etc.
Plus, really harmful female stereotypes - someone with chipped nail polish is depressed and has low self esteem; being fat is simply a lack of willpower; eating little is my golden rule.
This book is a nightmare.
**I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.** Minimalism, Self Help, Nonfiction
I said it as I was reading it & now that I have finished, I can confirm it is true... L’art de la Simplicité: How to Live More with Less is my Wuthering Heights of simplicity books. Some of you know how I feel about Wuthering Heights. (If you don't, read on...)
I like reading simplicity books. They're kind of soothing fluff for me, light, inspiring, etc.... But, this is not the case here. Supposedly this is a melding of her French sensibilities with her love of Japanese zen/simplicity, but it's as if she just put a bunch of trite commentary copied from various works into one place. Target audience? Not sure unless it is the rich & flaky. You're supposed to achieve a zen-like existence in mind/body/spirit, but doing so also necessitates Italian leather, pashmina, cashmere. For your personal meditation time, you definitely need thick cushions covered in only 100% wool or 100% silk. Eat & drink sparingly, yet other times, you are encouraged to drink champagne (buying a crate of it no less). Of course, the eating sparingly will fit in well with her overuse of the word slim in the book. Because, even though appearances shouldn't matter I guess, she seems strangely fixated on women (no mention of men) needing to remain slim no matter what. And if you're going to use the word slim so many times within one section of the book, at least be industrious enough to use a thesaurus & vary the vocabulary a little bit. Please. Lots of the advice is conflicting too. So you read about doing one thing on one page, but within another page or two, you are being given seemingly opposite advice. Even though this is a small format book, it took me awhile to slog through the 200+ pages -- very few of which have any real or practical advice on how to achieve any of the things she espouses; I guess you're supposed to intuit that information? But, given what I guess to be the target audience, I'm not sure there will be a lot of intuiting going on. Sheesh. Skip this one unless you're looking for some cynical laughs. What an utterly ridiculous book. Minimalism, Self Help, Nonfiction ‘L’art de la Simplicitie’ (2005) by Dominique Loreau is a book which came to me as highly recommended, which is sadly why it turned out to be all the more disappointing than anticipated.
The subtitle and basic premise to Loreau’s book is essentially – ‘how to live more with less’ – which is of course a laudable and admirable one. We all know that a life of excess and the accumulation of multiple possessions and material wealth is not the road to happiness. The idea of simplifying life and reducing the number and the burden of unwanted, unneeded, unnoticed, unmissed possessions – it’s is easy to see why this is worthwhile, decluttering your home as well as your life and your mind and this all makes sense. So seemingly with a shared outlook, I embarked on Loreau’s book with interest.
Unfortunately however, the huge paradox and contradiction of a book title the art of simplicity – that consists overwhelmingly of repetition and lack of focus or clear direction, so many unnecessary words and phrases and passages, even chapters, which makes it feel like we are being told the same thing over and over and over and over again…. ‘L’art de la Simplicitie’ would certainly have benefitted from applying its own principles and having some significant editing by a ruthless editor; the book would have been far more effective by being, at the very most, half its published length. Because amongst all the repetition, there is much that is good and sensible - however this is mostly lost, swamped and overwhelmed by the rest of the text, which is a great pity.
Loreau provides us with a mish-mash of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, a smattering of ideas from western thinkers and philosophers and the whole is sadly much less than the sum of its parts. ‘L’art de la Simplicitie’ apart from being repetitive, unfocused and ultimately directionless, is also patronising, racially and culturally stereotyping and relies on huge generalisations. Loreau gives us also style and fashion advice, but strangely only for women (don’t the same principles apply to men?) as well as some questionable medical and mental health advice. Loreau also contradicts herself on several points throughout the book – an example being a section telling us about how we should sanctify and ritualise our daily routines, whilst at the same time changing routines and trying something new??
Ultimately then, ‘L’art de la Simplicitie’ is sadly just another average self-help book – but I can’t help thinking that there must be better and more effective such books out there to be read? This clearly isn’t one of them.
When it comes down to it, maybe Loreau’s book could really just have been a list…?
Eat less, eat better, sleep well, meditate, exercise, reduce possessions, relax, tidy your house, wear simple stylish clothes, think positively, enjoy solitude, use visualisation, have goals, aim for your goals etc etc etc
Minimalism, Self Help, Nonfiction Probably the most annoying book I've read in a long time. Patronising, full of stereotypes and advice that's not exacly good or healthy. The only thing I liked were the recipes for homemade beauty treatments - hence the 2-star rating. Minimalism, Self Help, Nonfiction This book is utter rubbish. I thought about leaving it on the train I'd been reading it on, but then I realised someone else might pick it up and actually mistake it's patronising trite as 'words of wisdom' so I took it home to burn. Minimalism, Self Help, Nonfiction I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I'd like to start out by saying there were a few things in this book that I agreed with generally. With that being said, I disagree with this book as a whole.
I understand that the author is writing this from the perspective of someone who has lived in both French and Japanese culture, but most of this book felt like patriarchal propaganda to me. The book is geared toward women, which gave me the following impression: women are simple creatures and should therefore live simply. Men need not follow the same guidelines.
Loreau writes about the importance of striving for beauty and perfection. In general, trying to be the best version of yourself is a good goal to have, granted you are doing it for the right reasons. Loreau touched on how this goal can bring self-fulfillment, but she propagated the idea that this is also for others' benefit. For example, she talks about how nobody likes hearing people complain about their problems.
There is a little truth to that, but life is not all rainbows and sunshine. Expressing emotion is what makes us human, and I don't agree with hiding negative emotions simply to spare someone else from an uncomfortable situation.
Loreau gives unhealthy and contradictory advice in this book. It makes me cringe for someone to advocate eating only when you're hungry. On some days, I can reach early evening without feeling hungry, but my body still needs nutrients throughout the day to perform basic involuntary functions.
In terms of fitness, we're given the suggestion that we should keep our goal weight in mind, but the author later says that the number on a scale does not matter. However, the author reminds us that nobody likes seeing people who are out of shape physically either. I was half expecting her to write that women should not be TOO in shape.
As for organization, there was a lot of overlap between the sections, and some of the language is extremely repetitive. At times, this felt like a stream of consciousness piece rather than a self-help book; Loreau does not always move from sentence to sentence logically. Many details could have been removed, and the book would have had the same impact. It's hard for me to fathom someone writing a book about simplicity when they clearly don't understand the value of communicating concisely.
tl;dr
This book was not for me because I value self-love and self-acceptance. Striving to be better is a healthy goal, but we must determine for ourselves what the best version of us is like as opposed to mindlessly following the advice of someone who, if she saw us in everyday life, would likely pass judgment on us before knowing us. Minimalism, Self Help, Nonfiction
Dominique Loreau ☆ 1 REVIEW
