It was 11pm when I checked my email for the last time and turned off my phone for what I hoped would be forever.
No running water, no car, no electricity or any of the things it powers: the internet, phone, washing machine, radio or light bulb. Just a wooden cabin, on a smallholding, by the edge of a stand of spruce.
In this honest and lyrical account of a remarkable life without modern technology, Mark Boyle, author of The Moneyless Man, explores the hard won joys of building a home with his bare hands, learning to make fire, collecting water from the stream, foraging and fishing.
What he finds is an elemental life, one governed by the rhythms of the sun and seasons, where life and death dance in a primal landscape of blood, wood, muck, water, and fire – much the same life we have lived for most of our time on earth. Revisiting it brings a deep insight into what it means to be human at a time when the boundaries between man and machine are blurring.
Source | Format | Pages | Publisher | Genre | Publication Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Netgalley | eARC | 304 | Oneworld Publications | Non-Fiction | June 11th, 2019 |
Well, I don’t aim to insult/offend people within the first sentence of my review but I think I would not be overexaggerating if I said that about 80% of the modern, first world population – at the very least counting 70-80% of Europe- would NOT at all be able to follow in Mark Boyle’s footsteps. I am not fully cut out for that either, no matter how much I would like to be. Kudos, Mark- you’re my new hero!
The Way Home is more than an experiment agreed on a night out to live without technology. Mark’s bloody serious about it. It’s going back to the roots, the hard and back-breaking and dirty way but damn if it ain’t rewarding for the soul! I am talking about no phone, no computer- want to reach Mark? Write him a letter, on paper with pen, and pop it in the post. No fuel/electricity powered tools, no cars, no tractors – get a wheelbarrow to deliver stuff from A to B and cycle or walk where you need to go. It’s not just the small, immediate stuff… Mark has to think ahead. Waaaay ahead to survive the winter coming, or prepare for the spring ahead to survive the winter coming. Store food… make sure there’s plenty of firewood. Store food… how simple it sounds. But it’s not! You need to tend the ground, make compost, maintain the crops, harvest the crops and then do various things with various produce to make it last.
But the most fascinating aspect of this book for me was the time-keeping… I have always wondered about what it would be like if we simply no longer had clocks on the walls and on our mobile phones and smart watches and all that shebang telling us to constantly be somewhere, to constantly rush to the next destination, when to wake up, go to sleep, eat, everything! Mark said no to the concept or time keeping as we all know it and I am just fucking jealous that he gets to experience it! I am! It must be absolutely marvellous! Just let the body adjust to not feeling like there’s a someplace to be because the clock says so; fall back into the natural rhythm and do things because your very survival and wellbeing depends on it. Go to sleep when it gets dark or when the body is drained after a day’s work and wake up when you wake up and keep going about life. Sounds self centric? Hell yes. The way it should be- we should live and BE HERE for ourselves, not for a greedy corporate agenda. No matter how high and mighty we humans think ourselves, we’re still simply a part of nature just like wolves, pigs, trees and fish. We’re just lucky to be at the top of the food chain so to speak.
Ah, this was a book I thoroughly enjoyed. If it’s about making the light shine on living the natural way, I am all ears. Mark also has this wonderful, lovely way of telling about his daily life. Maybe it also helped that he lives in rural Ireland where people are friendly and stick together. It’s a very personal account as Mark takes us through the seasons and days and wins and losses. I’m not there, I’m not living it but I could feel the joy of it all. Hardships included.
Totally going to suggest this to a guy I work with. He’s massively into this kind of thing 😊
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Nice! (Y) 🙂
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Wonderful review! I love the sound of this one and will definitely be adding this to Goodreads.
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Fantastic 🙂 I think it’s definitely worth a read – there were somethings that maybe only apply on a small scale – as Mark approaches from an Irish perspective… but these were maybe one or two and I am sorry now I didn’t reference in my review but I just wrote from the heart 😀
I hope you enjoy it- there’s some food for thought in there for sure 🙂
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I was waiting for your review of this. It sure is an appealing lifestyle. But I think we can find a balance between our modern lives, and still engaging with nature around us. I would love to live off the land though – that is a dream life for me.
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Cheers 🙂
We definitely can balance… I think a lot of it comes down to the personal ability to draw the line- e.g. picking up that phone again to scroll through feeds, or watching Netflix when we could be out there with an axe chopping wood and making the best of a dry weather/daylight 😀
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This sounds terrific and terrifying all at once xD I wholly agree with you that most people would not be able to go through with it and I include myself in that group
We’re just too dependent on technology – I cannot go one day without internet, without my phone, without… Ameneties! Let’s be honest, they are.
I’m not even going to mention electricity or transportation, I mean… Damn xD
Big shoutout to Mark for doing this and being successful at it, he’s the real MVP here hahaha
This is not usual my kind of reading but I might pick it up because now I’m super curious! Amazing review, Liz 🙂 ❤
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Oh, wow, thank you so much – it’s the best when I manage to get readers interested in something they normally wouldn’t pick up 🙂
I agree with you – it’s tough as hell disconnecting… I admit, working with a pc and internet connection day by day and then blogging and doing all the useful/handy stuff with technology – I really enjoy my time off work because I just switch everything off and go muck up horseshit in the fields or get stuck in in the garden and potato field – and I always think- I could do this for living, it’s peaceful! 😀
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You know what, actually that sounds amazing – I would LOVE to be mucking up horseshit right now (it meant I had horses, ha!) and I love gardening so… Yeah, I can definitely see it as a great retiring plan!
Hopefully, I won’t have to wait decades for it. That’d be pretty depressing xD You’re so lucky to be able to do that now.
But yeah, the corporate world can be a bit too much at times… I love being able to send an email over without having to get off my butt and actually face the person in the next room but at the same time it sounds pretty messed up if you think about it lol
Technology is awesome but can get draining pretty fast… Mark Boyle, yeah, that guy knows what’s up xD
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Okay , I have already bought it now . You made me spend money . That’s the biggest praise I can give to a review
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I am honoured! 🙂 I hope you enjoy the read and I am sure your thoughts on it will be very interesting 🙂
I did have a couple of things – which I now regret I didn’t think to reference in my review because I was just writing from the heart- poof – that I felt were a bit too from the specific location point of view rather than something that is exactly the same across the world, but hey… it was interesting read and who knew regular life could be so engaging 😀
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I hope I like it . Of course customs differ , but the whole concept is fascinating , I always stay off my phone once a week , but I can’t imagine living without electricity
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Ah cool! I like to take device breaks too! 🙂
Anyway, I shall look forward to your thoughts 🙂
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It definitely sounds like a fascinating way of live, although I’m not sure if I would be able to take it to such extremes myself… Internet and phone, no problem, but no electricity whatsoever? I’m too weak for that. 😉 Fab review!
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Thank you 🙂
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I agree. So many would rather put an end to their lives than to cut themselves off of the virtual world. Pretty insane. Sounds like an interesting read! Great review, Liz!
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Thank you, Lashaan 🙂
Yeah, it’s insane what the advancements have done to society… it’s a bit like being in a scifi film and we’re all just blissfully ignorant whilst we’re being ‘eaten alive’ by this ‘beast’ 😀 haha… weird.
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Oh! I would love this book! A character in The Bobcat was talking about reading a book just like this one. I would love to spend summers this way, but with a small solar charger so I could read on my Kindle, ha ha. I can also see why you would love this. I’d love to be able to buy a small.piece of land and put a yurt on it to spend summers and early autumn there. 😍 Thank you so much fir the heads up about this one..🙌🙌🙌
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Yes! A solar charger for the Kindle!
I think everyone needs a little patch of nature somewhere in their lives where they can go and just recharge the batteries! 🙂 It’s a dream 🙂
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Please ignore the typos. 💩
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Absolutely no problem 🙂
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Ahh, this way of life sounds so appealing! I am all about going back to the natural way of life (or at least, when I’m older), and I’ve always hated how society is so “on-the-clock” about everything. Just living at your own rhythm while working hard to do things for yourself…it sounds wonderful. Though you are right that I am in the 80% of the population who can’t put down their technology for anything; that I can’t see myself giving up ever. 😅
Terrific review Liz! This book sounds really great!
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Thank you 🙂
It’s so pleasing to see from the comments that most people would love to just even try this back to the nature type of living arrangement. I’ve always lived in smaller rural areas and damn, visiting the city for a day just leaves me knackered and annoyed at all the pushing and pulling and rushing and noise… I’d go mental if I had to live in a city, I think…
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Same! I honestly don’t see the appeal of (big) city life. I’d go back to living in nature JUST to get away from the pushing and pulling alone!
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I for one have grown far too comfortable with modern living (including mobile phones, internet, Bluray and Youtube etc) to give it up now. When I was a kid, there was no double-glazing. We had coal fires and iced-up windows and many other inconveniences. Clocks had pendulums, so I have some idea what going back to the past would mean. Not for me, but well done, Mr Boyle – and you!
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“clocks had pendulums” – hahaha… gosh, yes…
I think of all the modern stuff I would really miss is the running water in the house… for dishes, for clothes, for showering, the toilet. The rest I could deal with not having…
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We DID have running water back then. I’m not that old!!! 🙂
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