Recommended Reading

I'm a book hoarder.  I admit it.  I love books.  I am that lady at the library who checks out stacks of books and returns half of them unread because I didn't have time to read that many in the allotted two weeks given by the library.  I love the library.  Where else can you "borrow" someone's property without paying a dime on the assumption that you will carefully return it unscathed at no cost to you?  I only purchase books that I am in love with and I know I will read again and again.  Over the past year or so a few have tickled my fancy and made it onto the "Books To Purchase" list in regards to small home living.  I share them with you, but you can't borrow them.  I'm sorry.  I'm very selfish.

"A Tiny Home to Call Your Own: Living Well in Just Right Houses" by Patricia L. Foreman.  While downsizing in this economy has turned into more of a necessity than a trend, this book reinforces the idea that turning away from the dreaded McMansion and toward a simpler lifestyle that increases your quality of life while decreasing your square footage and it lists the why's and how's to do it.  Read it.  I know you'll love it.

"The Small House Book" by Jay Shaffer.  After his whirlwind visit to Oprah, Jay Shaffer's book became a bestseller based on his theory that if you are not living in a small home, not only do you compromise your future by wasting your money, but that you compromise the integrity of the earth by increasing your carbon footprint.  He is a vocal proponent of the "Eco-Friendly" home.  I love this book.  I already own it.  Its wonderful.

"The Very Small Home"offers a forward by renowned architect, Kengo Kuma, along with detailed tours through a number of small Japanese homes. It provides great photographs and axiometric drawings that show how each house fits together. A purely beautiful book with great eye candy in the form of architecture.  It also has some great storage ideas.  A must read!

"Creating the Not So Big House: Insights and Ideas for the New American Home" by Sarah Susanka.  This book makes me so happy!  Sarah Susanka tells it like it is by contrasting the glamorous, glossy-photo house plans of vaulted ceilings and palatial living rooms with the livable, day-to-day pleasure of cozy window seats and comfortable breakfast nooks, and her conclusion is resonating with families across the country: bigger but shoddier isn't better than smaller and well made.  Things you and I already know, but it is so wonderful to see it in print and bound and copied. 

These books are wonderful go-to guides for small home living.  They made me think and look at my lifestyle in a new perspective.  I highly recommend them.

Happy Reading!
~Amber