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How to be Free (Hardcover)

by Tom Hodgkinson (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Hamish Hamilton Ltd (5 Oct 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0241143217
  • ISBN-13: 978-0241143216
  • Product Dimensions: 17.6 x 13.8 x 3.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 209,251 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description

Have you ever wondered why you bother to go to work? Why so much of consumer culture is crap? Whether there might be a better, freer, happier way to live our lives? If so, this book is for you. Following up his cult bestseller "How To Be Idle", Tom Hodgkinson takes us on an inspirational journey towards true freedom and happiness. Read "How To Be Free" and learn how to throw off the shackles of anxiety, bureaucracy, debt, governments, housework, moaning, pain, poverty, ugliness, war and waste, and much else besides.


About the Author

Tom Hodgkinson was born in 1968 and is the author of the bestselling How To Be Idle. He is editor and co-founder of the Idler and contributes to the Sunday Telegraph, Guardian and Sunday Times. He also imported absinthe for a while. He lives in Devon with his family.

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Customer Reviews

34 Reviews
5 star:
 (17)
4 star:
 (9)
3 star:
 (5)
2 star:
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1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (34 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
56 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Right and Wrong, 28 Aug 2007
By Primzahl (Ruhrstadt) - See all my reviews
This review is from: How to be Free (Paperback)
I think that Tom is right about the sickness (money-driven society) but
is wrong about the remedy.

It is a pity he presents some of his more radical solutions very early in the book,
which might offend readers before they are ready to agree with him on the
sickness.

I already found some of his remedies myself to get free
(no car, no watch, no mortgage, no debts, no money-sucking hobbies),
so I really agree with him in many ways about the problem.

But many of his solutions are not applicable in large.
How many people can collect free firewood in the woods
before the woods are out of wood - that solution "wood" simply not work ;-)

If the book would stick to the small solutions I would like to give it
away to other people.
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53 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Buy this and prevent a heart attack, 9 April 2007
By JD Mulder (Leeds, West Yorkshire) - See all my reviews
Considering Tom Hodgkinson is editor of the Idler and places being idle as a life aim he's not exactly workshy when it comes to research for this book. All around us we see stressed out workers competing for the best parking space, snatching at every opportunity and consuming with a vigour that would put most drug addicts to shame - Hodgkinson, with a broad sword that takes in medieval merrymaking and our 21st century tax burden (higher now than in fuedal times according to the author) puts forward an almost unarguable point that we all need to slow down, consume less, laugh more and stop striving for the next big thing. As most people deep down know this to be true it took "How to Be Free" for me to finally stop and, like being gently slapped in the face with the fish of happiness and quit rushing around like an idiot. It's rare for books to actually stop you in your tracks (The Corporation - Bakan, Stupid White Men - Moore, The Culture of Fear - Glassner, How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered the World - Wheen) but I was the road rage, drag the dog around the park, five meetings a day, make more money screaming bundle of stress that somehow defines modern man. How to Be Free points to an alternative way of life that drags the absurdity of this modern capitalist lifestyle out into the bright sunshine and stabs it repeatedly with his observations, facts and comparisons. Buy this book or alternatively, on Tom Hodgkinsons advice, buy a ukulele .. or was it a banjo. Buy two, one for yourself and one for someone you know who screams at cyclists.
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50 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An essential read!, 17 Aug 2007
This review is from: How to be Free (Paperback)
I found this book by chance, really - I needed a third book for a '3 for 2' offer in the bookshop, and it had a particularly attractive title. At first I thought that it would just be another of those useless books that claims to be able to 'change your life for the better,' or that he was another author attempting to make a quick buck from a lot of worthless twaddle. But once I'd started reading it, I realised how wrong I was.

Tom Hodgkinson essentially looks at modern society - decides it's all utter nonsense - and then presents you with a laid-back, enjoyable and free way to live life. He rants and raves about how rubbish the world is nowadays, his train of thought twisting and dancing as you turn the pages; but it's all true - and it really is enlightening.

While I don't argue that it's possible for everyone to follow his instructions for life (how would society achieve advancements in science, medicine, the arts etc if we all relaxed and tended our allotments?) I seriously recommend you read it, as it offers - at the very least - a new and freer way of looking at life.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Revolution on your allotment
Any book that states that both banks and supermarkets are evil is on to a winner. Bankers, we are all told are all going to hell for their usurious practices and supermarkets are... Read more
Published 26 days ago by Soft Southener

5.0 out of 5 stars Wake up!
Everyone should read this book all the way through at least once, if only to have an option of an alternate view of how we live our lives. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Bunnigolightly

4.0 out of 5 stars Idling - but not as you know it
Tom Hodkinson's view of life is probably well known by now. Through his magazine "The Idler", he encourages people to throw off the shackles of consumerism, to want less and to... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Three Chord Trick

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun to read, and what a bibliography
I read this book faster than I have read anything for ages. It was an instantly gratifying piece of writing, which has left only a slightly unpleasant aftertaste. Read more
Published 3 months ago by H. Bagnall

1.0 out of 5 stars Money spinning Twaddle
Early on in this book TH urges the reader to "find your gift".
The author's gift,it seems to me, is recycling. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Charlotte

3.0 out of 5 stars A curate's egg...
... in other words, good in parts.

It's clear from the book that whatever Tom Hodgkinson has to say about work, he put in his time in putting this book together with... Read more
Published 4 months ago by A reader

2.0 out of 5 stars How not to be free
I wasn't even anywhere near half way through the book and got bored. The author is right about a lot of things in society like money and has clearly done some research and... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Ponums

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny and thought provoking
Having read some of the reviews I think people are taking the book too seriously, I found the book interesting and thought provoking but also very funny. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Peter Wilkinson

4.0 out of 5 stars Life affirming, if a little naive in parts
I think Tom approaches life very much from a Rousseauian perspective that "Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains". Read more
Published 8 months ago by Glaucon

5.0 out of 5 stars A miniature treasure.
Bought on impulse, now adored! The writer is inspirational without being too pretentious; the ideas are intelligent yet appealing to common sense. Read more
Published 8 months ago by L. Butler

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