Shop Ireland

The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency: The Classic Guide for Realists and Dreamers by: John Seymour, Will Sutherland, E.F. Schumacher

More Product Details...

Review Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next »

Click here to add a review!

Average rating -

Rating: - worth while

Im not much of a person for writing or reading, more of a hands on sort of person, but i read this book and it was incredible. The author makes it clear and easy to understand, giving good diagrams along with step by step procedures. I would reccomend this book to anyone, as i hve done, its well worth the money.

Rating: - Excellent addition to the coffee table. . . or museum

Regarded as a classic by many, Seymour's tome has slipped sadly out of date and the 2003 relaunch did little to correct some aspects which - in Britain at least - have been overtaken by legislation. To recommend a swill bucket for pigs is inexcusable as contaminated swill is generally accepted to be the cause of the 2001 foot and mouth outbreak.

There's a lot of interesting stuff - including Seymour's unusual and ill-informed culinary ideas - which will keep you amused, but little for the serious smallholder. It is rarely looked and never consulted on our farm.

One fellow-farmer, on being asked if he followed Seymour's advice, said he would love to, but the day had yet to be extended to 37 hours.

Rating: - Excellent introduction but you will need more detail

Well maybe not a complete book of self sufficiency but certainly a very good place to start.

Some people have criticised this for being more a book for dreamers than realists but as every ambition starts as a dream is that such a bad thing. Large sections of this book are really aimed at the smallholder so if you have five acres and a cow you are pretty much the target audience for this book but even if you have just a semi and an allotment you should find something of value in here. A lot of it is also an introduction rather than a complete manual. So, for example, covering how to keep chickens in just three pages is never going to be a complete guide but it does have a place, it let's me know that putting chickens in my back garden is a viable idea and that really is its value this is usually the first place to look for a start to my next downsizing project.

Of course that breadth of subject and shallowness with which each is treated is also it's problem; the range of subjects covered here is probably unrealistic for any one person to cover and if you do try any of them you will probably want more detail. So while it's inspiring and might encourage you to believe you can do more than you thought you could you it really is just the first step. Nonetheless it's an excellent place to start and for inspirational value alone I'd recommend this.

Rating: - A "bible" on how to live self-suficiency

Well, this is a classic and still so updated.
Maybe you will have to buy some eco building books, and permaculture manuals, but this is a must for anyone on the eco, self-sufficient movement.
It is a must. A classic pointing to all old tradicional ways of living, going to nearly everything, such as food, growing, harvesting, storage, animals, energy, doing stuff with metal or wood, case-studies, etc...

Well worth the price and believe it will stand pretty well on your library!

Rating: - One star is too much

If you want to daydream, okay, go ahead and buy it. For the realists however it holds nothing but superficial intros into this and that.
The problem is that it leads you to believe all of those chores are possible to do in a real life situation and it appears that the author has done so. Far from true. Imagine doing not even a quarter of what he describes and then to meet him and being told that it would be too much work for him... no imagination, it happened. Hands-on guides should leave you with a sound knowledge of the covered aspects. This one fails on the whole.

Review Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next »