Okay, the title is a bit of a shout out to Faith No More. Best band ever…to purposely make crappy music on their last studio album and fizzle out. Well, Ashes to Ashes is a pretty good tune.
Notable runner-up….Pearl Jam.
Hold on a sec, gotta fire up Faith No More Greatest Hits in ITunes to finish this post. Sweet aural nectar…
A Short Defense
Okay, I’ve been blogging for about nine months now. Seven months at Scribe for the Tribe and a month and a half here at You, Simplified (that adds up to 8.5 months, I get it).
Did you know that Epic is a song about….Google it? Seriously, I don’t make this stuff up.
In that time, I’ve never referred a product prior to my post on Sunday about Leo Babauta’s A List Blogging Bootcamp. I am all for recommending products for people who I feel have a reputation for integrity. I’m not an internet marketer, nor am I part of the Cool kids tribe. My values are more in line with the Third Tribe. It’s not worth it to me to recommend something just to make money if the person I am recommending is a certified a-hole with a craptacular, regurgitated product.
For the record, A Small Victory is a killer toon.
My second qualification is that I’ve used the product/read the book and gotten significant value from it.
If it passed both of those tests and I’m feeling motivated to share it, you’ll find it here on this blog.
The point is I don’t recommend something that’s a piece of shyt. My integrity is worth more than that.
Oh man, Midlife Crisis, I love that toon!
So Whatcha’ Pimpin’?
Today, I’m recommending a book written by a relatively new blogger on the Minimalist scene, Everett Bogue of Far Beyond the Stars. He’s enjoyed some incredible growth for someone so new.
Go read some of his stuff. His posts go the extra mile, they provide value, and you can tell by the tone that the guy is trying to be as helpful as humanly possible. You can’t fake caring.
War Pigs is the best cover toon ever. In fact, it should rightfully be Faith No More’s toon and Black Sabbath should rebrand their version as a cover.
His eBook is good shyt, not to be confused with “piece of shyt” (you can use that as a testimonial, Everett).
Since I suck at book reviews, just indulge me for a couple of minutes while I tell you about a couple parts that I think will really help me and I’m putting into practice. So, here’s a quick look at The Art of Being Minimalist.
Whatever happened to Jim Martin? From Out of Nowhere is one of the greatest toons to lead off an album ever.
The Skinny
The eBook is 67 pages long, so it’s a nice short read, as any minimalist book should be (only a blowhard like me would write a 200 page minimalist book).
There are numerous chapters that appear in various degrees on his site, a fact Everett doesn’t hide from. His blogging has been a tool in order to get enough material together to have a book. But there’s new material here as well, including several personal anecdotes as to how he walks the walk (or is it walk the talk?).
Support Your Local Artists
“Artists Create What We Can Believe In” is one of the cooler parts of the book where Everett suggests supporting your local artists and merchants instead of the national chains. I never thought about having a local fashion designer create my wardrobe. Not that I’m gonna chuck my clothes just so I can go local, but when they wear out, I’ll very seriously consider this.
The wife and I like great wine, and apart from a weakness for wines in the Rioja region of Spain, we are very fortunate to live twenty minutes or so from the Niagara wine trail where there are at least fifty local, independent wineries. We head up there twice a year (a bit more difficult now with the triplets) and will come back with 15 bottles of wine or so. Couldn’t agree more that this is much better than supporting Yellowtail…unless of course you live next door to Yellowtail.
Ok, Easy nearly put me to sleep. Lionel Richie can have that toon back.
“You’re Hindering Your Potential with Stuff” is about as abrupt and accurate a treatise on why you need to free yourself from your shyt as I’ve ever read and despite the fact that I own four houses (investment properties…an article for another day) and two cars (did I mention we had triplets?) his chapter on Forego the Biggest Expenses is pretty spot on.
And by far the most helpful section was the series of chapters on Success. Read it.
Digging the Grave rules. Billy Gould is a genius.
One complaint (because you can’t call yourself a critic unless you criticize something), mix in a little Table of Contents somewheres (yeah, I said “somewheres”) so that I can scan for the chapters I want to re-read when I want some inspiration or need to reference (reference = steal) something for a blog post.
Ok, Last Cup of Sorrow is a pretty good toon too. But two decent songs do not a good album make!
Everett was kind enough to send me a free review copy of his book on Friday. When I had finished reading it on Sunday, I found it valuable enough that I bought a copy anyway…I thought I was buying an eBook but apparently I bought an authentic Everett Bogue. I hope they poke breathing holes in the package.
For the record, for every $9.95 sale, I get 50%, which helps, in a small way, to fund this little writing habit I’ve got. You can also become an affiliate yourself, share a great book with your friends and readers, and make back the cost of the book with two sales. Or become an affiliate first, then buy it and you get half the cost of the book back as affiliate income.
The Perfect Crime, best song ever from the best sequel ever, Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey…(dis)honorable mention to Police Academy 4.
This blog is not a venue to recommend a bunch of products to make me money. My intent has always been to write, and share, and write, and at some point, make my own books available. But when I find something good, something that I can get behind and push, by somebody who really seems genuine, I’ll do it. Everett’s the real deal.
Suffice it to say, I promise this will be the last affiliate post for a good while, though I’m still waiting eagerly on Tammy’s Car-Free eBook and Jeffrey Tang looks like he’s cooking up some good stuff. My blogging buddies have to stop publishing books at the same time.
Thanks for reading this far, now please click this link and order Everett’s book:
Click here to order The Art of Being Minimalist.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey, Album of The Year wasn’t that bad…Angel Dust was their best though followed by KFAD, FFAL.
I also like the older stuff with Chuck Mosley – WE CARE A LOT, dun dun… dun dun dunnn….dun dun… dun dun dunnn….
Hey – thanks for the link love and the awesome post.
I loved Everett’s book too. You are right on – he is a kind and caring person. That is not something you can fake.
I’ve started reading the ebook earlier today and hope to have it finished up by tonight. Everett has some good things to say about minimalism and I’m planning on writing a bit of a review myself in the near future.