How To Be Free

I got this book after reading How to be Idle, which was a great book. I like this one even better because it's so funny and wise. I didn't agree with some of his ideas, like I don't think drinking and smoking will set you free. (More like a waste of money, makes you sick, smell bad and can get you addicted--not free). I also think dishwashers are one man's greatest inventions. I love my dishwasher! But so much other stuff; baking bread, getting off the grid, saving money, being with like-minded friends, playing music.It's all good. (Several other books in the same spirit are The Bohemian Manifesto by Laren Stover and The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham.) One suggestion for people with sporadic incomes is to give ten percent of all you earn to a church or a charity that is doing good in the world. They say that people who tithe get twice as much benefit for half as much work. Sounds counter-intuitive, but it really works! Tithing and stopping worrying all the time will get you living like a trust fund kid in no time.

What an amusing read with some good points about self-reliance and freedom. Throw away your watch, have more parties, move to the country and grow your own food, get an instrument, be creative and make your own job, and drink often with your friends are just a few of the main points. There are a lot of historical tidbits to accent his frolicking good time attitude, and he illustrates just how much has changed after the Industrial Age. Things basically became more uptight and rigid with rules and regs running the show. A lot of it is tongue-in-cheek good humor; basically, this guy likes to have a blast. He's someone you'd love to party with, but he can be a bit on the Peter Pan always looking for a party type, which can get annoying up close and personal perhaps. Aren't we glad there are some serious minded people in the world? One comment here did mention that he has changed his tune on living in the country and moved back to London. He also rolled up his sleeves and started a business and wrote a book about business for Bohemians. I think he's grown up a bit. Still, this is a good read and quite enjoyable if you dream of freedom and self-reliance. He writes well and has a silly sense of humor.

The book started well, but I lost interest from the second chapter, Break the Bonds of Boredom. I have my own theory here. Chasing fun - which, in essence, is avoiding boredom - is similar to drug addiction: you are constantly looking for a hit, get high for a short time, and the cycle repeats itself again. Boredom is the same: find something entertaining often, because every time you do the freshness and intensity of fun fades, and you're back in square one. This way we always live in one of the two states: good - fun, and bad - which is when fun isn't happening. Continuously thrown between the walls of a narrow corridor, between fun and suffering. This allegory belongs to Victor Pelevin.What's boredom anyway? How come whatever we do we always come back to the boring state? Boredom is where life is happening. Entertainment is always short lived, just try repeat the same joke for ten minutes. The place to be is between the walls, in the middle. After peaks come troughs, and vice versa, the only more or less stable state is in the middle. To be free of boredom, not craving entertainment is real freedom. Freedom is when you can sit for an hour and just be.To the point. If Tom couldn't figure freedom out at the basic, spiritual - sorry, sounds corny - level, he has no business telling me about its other aspects.So yeah, read the book, find out how to avoid paying unnecessary bills and why you should throw away your watch. There is some good advice here: stop competing, don't chase a career and stop compulsive shopping, among other things. However, all these things are external and secondary to the real freedom. Which , in my opinion, should come within. Once you arrive to the shore you don't need explaining that you don't need the oars.So, three stars from me. For which Tom should not get too ticked off, he is free from opinions I suppose. Just joking. The book is a good but missed attempt of defining personal freedom. You won't lose much reading it.

I think the book has a good and reasonable message, but sometimes the author only beats around the bush and doesn't really go deep enough into the individual issues. He is also over-idealizing the past, which I felt was unnecessary, repetitive and sometimes a bit annoying. I was contemplating a refund mid-way through the book to be honest, but I decided to read the book to the end and eventually decided not to ask for a refund given that the book did provide some useful insights. Mark Manson's book seemed more to the point and I enjoyed it more.

Delightful reading to unwind with, many humorous anecdotes and stories of how modern life and government is insane.

Excellent book which I'd recommend to everyone but especially to young people. It shows how real freedom looks like and what really matters in life. Moreover it points out the daily marketing manipulation we are exposed to and what consumerism does with and to our lives. A must read!

I found this an inspiring work, written in an engaging and fun style.It is a little simplistic, but overall I gained some good ideas about looking at life in a different way.

This is a fabulous manifesto of a good life. Post-capitalist goodness.

I read "How to be Free" 12 years ago and it gave me a huge life-changing nudge. Much of it is tongue-in-cheek and shouldn't be taken too literally. But man, was it inspiring...12 years on, I have absolutely no debts, no mortgage and I'm actually considerably wealthier than I ever was before. Oh, and soooo much happier. My wife gave up teaching in the meantime and joined me in my/our business.Another reviewer here on Amazon felt Tom Hodgkinson writes from a background of privilege and has lofty and unrealistic expectations.I'd say his tone of voice is more one of sang froid and embracing serendipity - and just trying to have more fun. Me - my background is far from privileged. But I cherry-picked the bits that rang true for me, abandoned my top-flight career, moved to the far reaches of Cornwall for a few years to hang out with all sorts of really interesting people, let serendipity do it's thing and reinvented myself.A decade later - this year, we're filming again in the Arctic, skiing in Davos, shooting stock photos in Africa, cycling around Scotland and then cycle-touring the length of Taiwan. All frugally and cheaply. Our business ticks along happily by itself and we manage it digitally from anywhere.The way we're living now may not fit entirely into TH's vision/manifesto, but it's firmly based in his musings.We live in a small comfortable house, all paid for, we don't ever borrow money now and we have let go of so much "stuff" that we clung to in our earlier years, as status and qualifications of our success. Bollocks to all of that.And I've got Tom Hodgkinson to thank for inspiring me to take a leap into the unknown and unorthodox. Thanks mate :-)

Absolute trash. I read through the first few parts and one question quickly formed- how am I supposed to pay for this lifestyle he's promoting? "Stop working, stop buying, start living. Feast, drink. Eat capons and good hams. Drink spiced wines and fine ales. Make your table groan with food." He is against the idea of a career, saying to go for a year without working to find your gift (and complaining how even women are seeking careers nowadays). This is something that''s not possible for many people, but the more you read the more clear it is that the author has scarcely had to worry about money in his life. Oh, and not to forget one of his suggestions for avoiding a mortgage. "A further alternative is vagabondage. Rid yourself of the mortgage and take to the streets."He has an idealised version of freedom, and for every good bit of advice there are pages of sanctimonious preaching from someone who seems to have no idea what it is like to live in hardship. On a section on physical pain he advises not to try and seek cures for your ailments and instead recommends to live with it! Again, it's obvious that this is something he's never had any serious concerns with.There is some good advice (avoiding newspapers, baking your own bread, finding ways to be creative) but a lot of it is clueless of what life is like for many, and in some cases plain insulting with his ignorance and misplaced idealism. And it's baffling how someone who's managed to source so many quotes from historical figures remains so clueless as to the reality of life for most people during the medieval period. But then again, this is the same person who earnestly suggests living on the streets as an alternative to having a home...

Although strictly speaking not a "how to" on how to escape the rat race, this book has a far more important and ambitious objective, to change the way you think.If you want to escape the rat race, then the toughest hurdle to overcome is to change your mind - to see the current system for what it is - a mug's game. Time and again I meet people who could escape the rat race but who *choose* not too, because they are still totally invested in the ways of thinking about work and life that came into being with the start of the industrial revolution. This book does a great job at shattering those illusions.For those that are able, with the help of this book, to gain some perspective, then the actual path to escape is relatively straight forward. Spend a heck of a lot less than you are doing now, quit your job, get rid of the mortgage, live frugally. There are plenty of practical ideas in this book for those ready to escape and be free, and even more if you follow the copious links to further references contained within.It has been said you can do anything if you know the "why", this book is an entertaining, well written, humurous, and thoroughly researched attempt at providing that. The historical aspects that are covered may seem irrelevant to people who feel something is wrong with their current life, but remember the book's objectives, to change mindset is an important one. The historical context of why things are the way they are is an important part of the anti-dote to our "consumptive" economic system.If you are looking to make some fundamental changes in your life, and work less, have more fun and be happier, than I would whole-heartedly recommend this book.

I just love this book. It came into my life in the midst of a very dark time where I was struggling to see a way forward and even out. But there it was, like a fat green emergency exit sign leading to hope and freedom. Thank you, Tom, for these awesometacular pieces of advice, ideas and hope.

Generalised ideas and idealistic in many places rather than a practical approach. Looking to the past for comparison a bit too.much, but making.fair.points.

A great book for anyone who is remotely interested in not being a 'slave to the man.'Although it did make me want to quit my job and live in a forest.

At first read, it seems like Tom Hodgkinson is going overboard with his ideas, and is obsessed with a fantasy about how great life was in the past. However, there are lots of powerful insights behind his over-the-top narrative, which point out a way of living that is more free and more fun.

Tom Hodgkinson has an incisive mind and obviously a delightful personality. He seems to really live his philosophy on life. His comparisons with today and the freedoms and attitudes of the Middle Ages came as a complete revelation to me. We weren't always wage slaves and usury and those who practiced it was considered evil. [Hence no doubt, Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" found a resonance with audiences in the late 16th century as amongst other practices, the concept of interest-free loans began to be challenged and changed.] Tom seems to all intents and purposes a conventional married father with a gift for the written word - but read this book and find a much deeper and compelling philosopher - complete with a real sense of playfulness and a ukele!

Perhaps a little shriller and slightly more repetitive than 'How to be Idle'. I also detected a slightly angrier and harder edge to his narrative style than the previous book. Still a good read though, and smacks you between the eyes, if like me, you've managed to get yourself on the ridiculous hamster wheel of get-mortgage/go-to-work/pay-mortgage.There is an alternative....

Entertaining read, but Hodgkinson comes across as incredibly naive. His ideas are from the heart but some of the stuff he propounds here strikes me as real pie in the sky.

Excellent read x

Has really helped the way my husband and I are planning our lives. There has never been a better time, globally, economically and environmentally, to read this book and implement what you fancy from it. Tom Hodgkinson, aka The Idler, has a great writing style to get his thoughts across, and if you like what you read there's a website and a whole mini-movement to get stuck into too. Enjoy.

Interesting and very good.

I enjoyed this book as the foundations to ignoring government and, as the saying goes, being the change you want to see in the world. Very good. Moving onto similar titles since I enjoyed this one

This book is his best, imho. It has lots of practical info about how to live freely, and also enough philosophy to understand the history of movements like the Diggers. It's a great one to have on your shelf.