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The Plain Reader: Essays on Making a Simple Life
"If information highways are the wave of the future then I will build information country roads on which the traveller can reach the truth faster by going slower. . . ."
On these same country roads, far from the intrusions of modern technology, the Amish, Quakers, and other "plain folk" live their unencumbered lives, close to the land, in peaceful, smoothly-run communities. The thought-provoking, often challenging essays in The Plain Reader are written by men and women who rarely speak outside the borders of their local townships, and provide us with unique perspectives on life stripped down to necessity. Originally published in Plain Magazine, these pieces are sure to inspire reflection.
Reading about a garden cooperative in Connecticut, the raising of a home with only plaster and straw in hand, a fascinating trip to New York City through Amish eyes, compels each of us wonder: Can I too survive without television or that high-tech appliance cluttering my kitchen counter? Am I just a cog in the wheel of the global economy? Is isolation from one another and from the earth the simple destiny of humankind? Each rich, personal essay in this provocative collection offers solace, wisdom, joy, and quiet space for contemplation.
On these same country roads, far from the intrusions of modern technology, the Amish, Quakers, and other "plain folk" live their unencumbered lives, close to the land, in peaceful, smoothly-run communities. The thought-provoking, often challenging essays in The Plain Reader are written by men and women who rarely speak outside the borders of their local townships, and provide us with unique perspectives on life stripped down to necessity. Originally published in Plain Magazine, these pieces are sure to inspire reflection.
Reading about a garden cooperative in Connecticut, the raising of a home with only plaster and straw in hand, a fascinating trip to New York City through Amish eyes, compels each of us wonder: Can I too survive without television or that high-tech appliance cluttering my kitchen counter? Am I just a cog in the wheel of the global economy? Is isolation from one another and from the earth the simple destiny of humankind? Each rich, personal essay in this provocative collection offers solace, wisdom, joy, and quiet space for contemplation.
270 pages, Paperback
First published May 5, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 10, 2015
The self-righteousness is hard to swallow. Well done to these people, who can live the Amish or Amish-ish way, but they leave little middle ground for the rest of us. Wendell Berry's sole essay is far and away the most intelligent and readable of this collection. I read the book hoping for inspiration for a simpler life and instead got a bunch of self-congratulatory people, so pleased with themselves for keeping their heads in the sand.
July 14, 2012
A series of articles written as reflections on the plain life. I one of those who long for simplicity, a pulling back from the pace the world sets for us if we let it. But I have to admit, this book challenged me and humbled me. How far am I really willing to go? Not as far as these folk, I know better now.
I don't really want the care of horses as much as I admire and appreciate them anew. I don't want to wear clothes quite as modest as their's in the heat of a southern summer. And I know for certain that the man I am married to is less further along this path than I am, so that puts the brakes on a great number of other choices I see as so wise.
Last night my girls put in some microwave popcorn as we watched a movie. I knew that popping our own would be healthier, but I caved in to convenience at the end of a long day. I missed the taste of homemade and recognized it as a good step: Being able to tell the difference between counterfeit and real and willing to make a change. Candlelight at night. Growing my own vegetables. Keeping the radio and television off. Building in time to meditate on the Lord on a daily basis.
I guess we can be a little "plain," and I'm good with that. I pray that He makes me more day by day. This book was an excellent tool in His hands to work upon me.
I don't really want the care of horses as much as I admire and appreciate them anew. I don't want to wear clothes quite as modest as their's in the heat of a southern summer. And I know for certain that the man I am married to is less further along this path than I am, so that puts the brakes on a great number of other choices I see as so wise.
Last night my girls put in some microwave popcorn as we watched a movie. I knew that popping our own would be healthier, but I caved in to convenience at the end of a long day. I missed the taste of homemade and recognized it as a good step: Being able to tell the difference between counterfeit and real and willing to make a change. Candlelight at night. Growing my own vegetables. Keeping the radio and television off. Building in time to meditate on the Lord on a daily basis.
I guess we can be a little "plain," and I'm good with that. I pray that He makes me more day by day. This book was an excellent tool in His hands to work upon me.
February 27, 2017
What really matters? Such is the question explored by the contributing authors of The Plain Reader, a collaboration between Amish and Quaker communities to express how living simply allows them to ‘put to rout all that [is] not life’ and experience themselves, their families, their communities – every aspect of the human condition, in fact – in a more profound way. Plain is a provocative work, prompting readers to think critically about their own lives and how our habits reveal our values.In return, the lessons taught may allow those interested to create a more peaceful, meaningful life.
The Plain Reader begins with the account of a man who quit his job at an oil company and purchased a small working farm to run with his wife and children. He was tired, he said, of working in a place that encouraged reckless consumerism that allowed a tiny minority to live extravagantly (that's us) at the expense of both the poor and of future generations, who will left with our messes and without resources. He was tired of working long hours at this company, being separated from his children and world outside his office. In place of all that, he was choosing a life that allowed him to practice sustainability and self-reliance, and to impart those values to his children while watching them grow up and working alongside them at the family farm while experiencing the glory of the natural world. Toward the book's end, one author writes that the essence of being Amish is choosing to reject anything that gets in the way of experiencing life fully, that constitutes a spiritual obstacle.
In that spirit, the authors of this book live. Some of them are not so different from most people who might pick up this slender volume: they have simply chosen to disengage from the constant havoc of everyday life. They've stopped shopping for the sake of shopping; they've shut off the television and found they liked a quieter home. They've opted to bicycle to work, or move closer to it so they wouldn't have to drive. Some start a garden and learn to can. And others have taken more dramatic steps, like joining Amish communities and taking up farming as a vocation. Because the sources hail from Christian religious communities, that tradition is touched on within, but these authors do not need to inject religious beliefs into their ordinary lives, like slapping a "HONK IF U LOVE JESUS" sticker onto their SUV; instead, their ordinary lives are their practice, and every action is imbued with the sacred, from birthing to washing clothes. They are not Puritans, for the most part; one contributor is a Quaker minister who uses a laptop to write his sermons and provide his pulpit notes. He's uncomfortable with having become dependent on the computer to write the notes he used to compose in longhand, but, he concludes, using the computer to write allows him more time to drive his buggy.
The relationship between humanity and machines is a running theme of the book; there exists a proper relation between the two, and working out what that relation is should be left to people and communities. Critical discussion of the machine is not limited to tools and physical objects, however, like the effect of televisions and computer games on family life; the authors take on Systems as machines, or as things which treat people like machines. They disdain an compulsory educational system that grooms children to take tests, but doesn't impart any skills; they reject dehumanizing work, and a medical approach that views organs and individuals in isolation and regards disease in both as something which should be treated with an array of patented pills. The contributors time and again turn away from the big and impersonal to the small and human-scaled; they embrace barter and favors systems rather than money, and stress the importance of adults who know children personally in teaching them about the world, one-on-one and by example, like apprentices and masters.
A common thread is that of community. As mentioned, most of the authors hail from Quaker and Amish communities, and so put great stock by traditions which bring and keep people together; The Plain Reader, while attacking most of what modern people take for granted, is conservative in that it generally emphasizes the welfare of communities over that of individuals, although the essayists presumably have different ideas as to what the ideal balance is between individual and communal well-being. While one urges people to think for themselves, another writes that removing televisions from the home allowed him to shelter his children, teaching them to accept certain beliefs on face value; he explicitly scoffs at this notion of people believing any old thing they want.
Though not a large book, The Plain Reader offers an abundance of food for thought. But that food isn't candy; it isn't necessarily sweet and easy to swallow. It's substantial, chewy, and can be felt all the way down your esophagus. Even to someone as receptive to their ideas as myself, some of the essays presented a challenge, especially in regards to health. While I find the "everything should be treated with pills" model as dubious as any, the mention of holistic medicine and having an herb for everything makes my skepi-senses tingle. Diet and exercise have their place in warding off most diseases -- but antibiotics have their place, too. The trick is to not destroy the body's immune system by swallowing a pill for every runny nose. Everything in moderation -- or should that be, most things?
The Plain Reader commends itself to those interested in a thoughtful life.
Related:
In Praise of Slowness, Carl Honore
Walden ; I to Myself, Henry David Thoreau
Hey, Mom, Can I Ride my Bike Across America? John Siegel Boettener
Consuming Kids: the Hostile Takeover of Childhood, Susan Linn
Why We Get Sick, Randolph Nesse & George Williams
The Plain Reader begins with the account of a man who quit his job at an oil company and purchased a small working farm to run with his wife and children. He was tired, he said, of working in a place that encouraged reckless consumerism that allowed a tiny minority to live extravagantly (that's us) at the expense of both the poor and of future generations, who will left with our messes and without resources. He was tired of working long hours at this company, being separated from his children and world outside his office. In place of all that, he was choosing a life that allowed him to practice sustainability and self-reliance, and to impart those values to his children while watching them grow up and working alongside them at the family farm while experiencing the glory of the natural world. Toward the book's end, one author writes that the essence of being Amish is choosing to reject anything that gets in the way of experiencing life fully, that constitutes a spiritual obstacle.
In that spirit, the authors of this book live. Some of them are not so different from most people who might pick up this slender volume: they have simply chosen to disengage from the constant havoc of everyday life. They've stopped shopping for the sake of shopping; they've shut off the television and found they liked a quieter home. They've opted to bicycle to work, or move closer to it so they wouldn't have to drive. Some start a garden and learn to can. And others have taken more dramatic steps, like joining Amish communities and taking up farming as a vocation. Because the sources hail from Christian religious communities, that tradition is touched on within, but these authors do not need to inject religious beliefs into their ordinary lives, like slapping a "HONK IF U LOVE JESUS" sticker onto their SUV; instead, their ordinary lives are their practice, and every action is imbued with the sacred, from birthing to washing clothes. They are not Puritans, for the most part; one contributor is a Quaker minister who uses a laptop to write his sermons and provide his pulpit notes. He's uncomfortable with having become dependent on the computer to write the notes he used to compose in longhand, but, he concludes, using the computer to write allows him more time to drive his buggy.
The relationship between humanity and machines is a running theme of the book; there exists a proper relation between the two, and working out what that relation is should be left to people and communities. Critical discussion of the machine is not limited to tools and physical objects, however, like the effect of televisions and computer games on family life; the authors take on Systems as machines, or as things which treat people like machines. They disdain an compulsory educational system that grooms children to take tests, but doesn't impart any skills; they reject dehumanizing work, and a medical approach that views organs and individuals in isolation and regards disease in both as something which should be treated with an array of patented pills. The contributors time and again turn away from the big and impersonal to the small and human-scaled; they embrace barter and favors systems rather than money, and stress the importance of adults who know children personally in teaching them about the world, one-on-one and by example, like apprentices and masters.
A common thread is that of community. As mentioned, most of the authors hail from Quaker and Amish communities, and so put great stock by traditions which bring and keep people together; The Plain Reader, while attacking most of what modern people take for granted, is conservative in that it generally emphasizes the welfare of communities over that of individuals, although the essayists presumably have different ideas as to what the ideal balance is between individual and communal well-being. While one urges people to think for themselves, another writes that removing televisions from the home allowed him to shelter his children, teaching them to accept certain beliefs on face value; he explicitly scoffs at this notion of people believing any old thing they want.
Though not a large book, The Plain Reader offers an abundance of food for thought. But that food isn't candy; it isn't necessarily sweet and easy to swallow. It's substantial, chewy, and can be felt all the way down your esophagus. Even to someone as receptive to their ideas as myself, some of the essays presented a challenge, especially in regards to health. While I find the "everything should be treated with pills" model as dubious as any, the mention of holistic medicine and having an herb for everything makes my skepi-senses tingle. Diet and exercise have their place in warding off most diseases -- but antibiotics have their place, too. The trick is to not destroy the body's immune system by swallowing a pill for every runny nose. Everything in moderation -- or should that be, most things?
The Plain Reader commends itself to those interested in a thoughtful life.
Related:
In Praise of Slowness, Carl Honore
Walden ; I to Myself, Henry David Thoreau
Hey, Mom, Can I Ride my Bike Across America? John Siegel Boettener
Consuming Kids: the Hostile Takeover of Childhood, Susan Linn
Why We Get Sick, Randolph Nesse & George Williams
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December 22, 2021Amish folks. Absence of technology. Values of silence. Werksgerechtigkeit. Life goals.
September 26, 2022
Thought-provoking essays about people who do things differently, will add some of my favorite quotes later!
August 24, 2025
Too religious, too cultish, too American.
April 27, 2016
The authors of these essays came from a multitude of different backgrounds and areas which made their common message all the more strong. A great read to start thinking outside the box and maybe make some changes or simply to have some interesting conversation starters.
January 5, 2010
Learned to wash my laundry by hand. Very handy when the washing machine kicked out 2 days later.
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March 20, 2008248.4
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews