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The 100 Thing Challenge: How I Got Rid Of Almost Everything, Remade My Life, And Regained My Soul (2010)

by Dave Bruno(Favorite Author)

2.77 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0061787744 (ISBN13: 9780061787744)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

William Morrow Paperbacks

review 1: I'm reading a lot right now about minimalism, voluntary simplicity, and intentional living. This is one of the best I've read on the topic. Mostly because the author really dives into to mentality, reasoning, purpose, function, and deep value of minimalism. He also takes about the precise number of things being arbitrary but necessary for him to truly living a materialistically purposeful life. Also, the challenge lasting a year is equally arbitrary and necessary. It had to be a volume and length that are both significant and within reason. Numbers that are both achievable and not overly onerous. I love how he shares the internal dialog he has with himself when he is trying to determine which way to go, what option to choose, and how far to go for the challenge. Wether or... more not you take the 100 thing challenge on, this is a tremendously worthwhile book for anyone looking to live more deliberately.
review 2: This one fell flat for me. There was a bunch of philosophizing and random stories thrown in, information about his lifestyle, but it wasn't I guess what I wanted out of the book. Bruno says himself that this wasn't actually a bloody, dramatic experience for him. things were tough in spots but he came out of it having succeeded in his goal of distancing himself from American Consumerism. Yay for him, but I didn't need to read most of what he wrote.He spent a lot of time justifying himself, which I think wasn't necessary. I agree with him, it's his challenge. If he has under 100 items, that's okay. He doesn't have to have EXACTLY 100 at all times. That seems silly. If you can have less, it's almost like you've done what you set out to do, and perhaps you've done it even better. I don't care if he goes with his wife Black Friday shopping! And of course he should buy a sweater when necessary. He admitted all these things as if they were a problem (and apparently people had made them out to be an issue, at least in their minds, via blog comments) but I thought it was silly to be so nit picky.I like the idea, and think that people in general DO have too much stuff (myself most definitely included). I have lots of craft supplies. If I wanted to take this challenge, for example, I would need to eliminate all crafting from my life. I'm sure I could do with a good yarn purge, but I don't find it necessary to toss my yarn, needles and other accessories to make a point, only to buy it back a year later. It seems extremely inefficient to purge all his woodworking gear to then only rebuild his shop a year later. At the end of the book, he hadn't re-bought his woodworking stuff, but he might. And perhaps it makes me a lesser person, but I can definitely see myself along this journey making lists of things that I would buy post-challenge. Gotta stock up on all that yarn again . . . ;-)All that said, Bruno did make a good point. The 100 Thing Challenge is an exercise to help a person learn to get out of the habit of buying just to buy and he makes a great point that you don't need a lot of stuff to be happy, nor does more stuff make you more happy than you were just before you bought said stuff. I did enjoy seeing his illustration of a great--almost perfect--day. And he only used 20 personal items. And he was happy. less

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Reviews (see all)

Anna

I liked this in principle, but not as much in the execution. I can really relate to the author (we even share the same birthday) in a lot of his struggles with American-style consumerism and his desire for something different. We share a tendency to get swept up in glorified visions of what our lives could be like if only we owned the right piece of gear, or tool, or article of clothing. I was even persuaded to make more a move toward simplifying my life and my desires (though this came before reading the book and reading Dave Bruno's account of his personal challenge has simply added fuel to the fire). In the end though, I felt like the execution of the book came off a bit flat. I could see where this would be an interesting blog to follow, or that he would be an interesting speaker to listen to, but as a book it just felt a little lifeless.

Destini

I got this book as a deal through Book Bub and was actually predisposed not to like it-- that attitude of reading something in order to criticize it! And even more when I discovered that he was a capital C Christian. But as it turns out he comes off as smart, thoughtful, insightful, reasonable, sincere, considerate of his family and thinking seriously about consumerism. Much better than I expected.

Dhope

I like the premise, but it didn't inspire or motivate me. Not what I was expecting :(

kissme

Completed a very general overview of the book. Very general....

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