What a great find at a time when our lives are having to do an about face! We may not end up with a farm per se but will use the helpful pages in this book to make ourselves less dependent on the super market at the very least. The illustrations are particularly good.
I recommend it to all I meet!

For those wishing to find an overview of what it means to live a self-sufficient life, look no further than this text. Engagingly written and bursting with relevant information, Seymour's volume covers just about every topic with the fundamental information you need to properly evaluate your current situation and plan for the future. It is sure to be well-worn and dogeared before too long.

I was very impressed by the amount of information covered in this book. It is a very good overview of all topics pertaining to Self Sufficiency. I would recommend it to anyone considering this as a lifestyle or who is looking to make even a few changes. My only complaint is that some topics that interested me were not covered in as much detail as I would have liked but this book is still a wealth of information.

REVIEWER: First up, consider that this review comes from a suburban guy who has his eye on country living. I would imagine if you are a seasoned farmer or off-grider then this book is not for you. Veterans will likely find this book too shallow on the virtually hundreds of topics it addresses.

SKILL LEVEL: However, if you are beginner to intermediate on topics of farming, gardening, livestock and all round back-to-basics living then this book is hands-down perfect. It deals with virtually every aspect of self-sufficient living in a concise, well illustrated manner. It's flat out makes me curious to try (put into practice) and to learn more about many of the different subjects contained within.

QUALITY: A great quality book (well printed, solidly bound). The layout and typography are excellent and illustrations are an excellent companion to the text.

CONCLUSION: This book is the culmination of decades of knowledge from a man who has lived his life as depicted in this book. It must be challenging to pack a lifetime into relatively so few pages (it's still a big book though!) but the "Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It" does a great job. It packs a lot of punch on a broad range of subjects and one must appreciate that because of this, it will at times feel a little skinny on specifics or in-depth information.

I'm rating this five stars because I believe that it communicates the subject matter perfectly to the audience for which it was intended.

This book is an absolute classic in self sufficiency. I don't think anyone seriously considering living "off the land" should leave this out of their library. The author not only lives what he teaches in the book but also teaches it in classes. This is a very well balanced book giving little golden nuggets that you probably never considered.

Very nice addition to any collection. Most of the ideas and uses, in this book, I agree with. It'll open up all kinds of other ideas to lead a simpler life in harmony with nature and the land we should all be a good steward of.

great book and resource for someone wanting to create a less dependent life for a sustainable future.

I regret buying this book. It reminds me of the children's picture books I used to read as a child, with all the farm animals and the tractor, only, perhaps, with slightly more realistic drawings and smaller lettering.

The diagrams are large and pointless (more paintings than informative illustrations), the text is shallow and seems to be written, as my title would suggest, for stupid people.

More a coffee table book to show off to fellow "gardening enthusiasts" than an informative reference book for someone intent on living sustainably.

Disappointed.

Great book for learning the basics of farm life. If you are getting started into the subject of sustainable living this is the perfect reference guide for you. You may require a companion book for plants more native to your climate (this book's perspective is in the UK). Insightful pictures and well written commentary make this book excel.

I was surprised to discover it is written sort of like a textbook. The more I look through it the more I like it. It's very practical and informative.

This book is great for just flipping through, day-dreaming about owning your own farm some day. Even for the current non-farmer, this book provides some practical tips on things almost anyone can do to be more self-sufficient. This book would be especially great for those who are intensive gardeners. But mostly this book provides ideas about certain aspects of self-sufficiency that the reader can then take and mold to their particular situation.

I'd like to address one point that some other reviewers have made in criticism of this book, namely that Seymour doesn't go into enough detail. Well, this is a coffee-table book that covers a fairly wide range of material. As such it can't (and shouldn't) go into deep detail. What Seymour does is get your imagination going. If you want to seriously implement some of Seymour's ideas you'll need to supplement this book with others that deal with the particular topic you're working on. To criticize Seymour for not going into detail on things is, I think, unfair.

This book would make a great gift for anyone who is interested in the self-sufficient lifestyle. I love flipping through the book whenever I feel like daydreaming about the fun work I hope to do some day on my own farm.

This book is great for just flipping through, day-dreaming about owning your own farm some day. Even for the current non-farmer, this book provides some practical tips on things almost anyone can do to be more self-sufficient. This book would be especially great for those who are intensive gardeners. But mostly this book provides ideas about certain aspects of self-sufficiency that the reader can then take and mold to their particular situation.

I'd like to address one point that some other reviewers have made in criticism of this book, namely that Seymour doesn't go into enough detail. Well, this is a coffee-table book that covers a fairly wide range of material. As such it can't (and shouldn't) go into deep detail. What Seymour does is get your imagination going. If you want to seriously implement some of Seymour's ideas you'll need to supplement this book with others that deal with the particular topic you're working on. To criticize Seymour for not going into detail on things is, I think, unfair.

This book would make a great gift for anyone who is interested in the self-sufficient lifestyle. I love flipping through the book whenever I feel like daydreaming about the fun work I hope to do some day on my own farm.

This book is an absolute necessity if you are going to be taking the plunge into self-sufficiency. It offers encouragement and guidance. It is realistic and full of traditional methods. It is a very handsome book, with lots of graphics and well written verse.

Simply cannot beat the price either. Simple, affordable, functional, and elegant - what self-sufficiency is all about.

This book has a lot of information about self-sufficiency. It is great of anyone who is interested in becoming self-sufficient.

This book has great voice. I liked very much the tone of the author, and his descriptions about how to do things (and good pictures) were great. If you wanted to go Amish, you could with this book. If you simply want to know how to make wine and cheese, this book can do that. Unfortunately, the website listed in the back of the book is no longer active (although it still exists).

The book the self sufficent life, by John Seymour, give a everyday look at the work and the joy of self-sufficency. For many people self sufficency is just a dream of a quality life style. In this book you can feel the joy of this man and his family has achieved. I thoughly enjoyed it and I see myself referring to it for crop rotation and future planning of my estate.

I love this book! I borrowed it from the library so often that I decided to buy it! It tells you how to do everything!

This book is detailed, well-written, thorough. The pictures and diagrams are wonderful.

Two months ago, I didn't know anything about keeping the kind of animal I am alive in the absence of a supermarket. Now I feel as though I could live happily on 10 acres of land for the rest of my life and never need to leave! If you want to learn to store food for winter, butcher, rotate crops or hitch a horse to a plow, this is the book for you.

Absolutely the very best...the drawings are superb and a great way to learn.

This book offers all a homesteader or potential homesteader needs to know to get started. Given from a British perspective many of the techniques mentioned may not be legal or practical everywhere. Despite this, I found this to be a thorough guide that covered many aspects of homesteading that I myself had not thought of. Basket and cloth weaving, beekeeping, raising and butchering animals, fishponds for food and food preservation techniques, it's all here and more. At times it is slow reading as being of the same mind as many readers, I found myself looking more for the fantasy of what being a homesteader is like rather than the reality. This is a complete guide on how to be a farmer! I only regret that Mr. Seymour is no longer with us and that we no longer have the benefit of such wisdom.

Well written and useful information in the event of a social collapse. Well done!

I built the compost bins per the specifications in the book but won't know for a while how that works out. It's a good guide for doing a lot of the things that I've been thinking about but not practicing for years. Living in LA, it's hard to imagine doing much of what is offered in the book but as a novice, as I build my garden and develop my little piece of the planet, this book is my first stop.

The book is everything you could wish to know from beginning to end. The ONLY criticism I have with the book is that is seems to be for one specific climate in England. I'm not quite sure how to translate a lot of it over to a New England (USA)Winter setting. Regardless of that, it's a miracle to have such a book in this day and age.

I have read this book twice now. I was amazed at the amount of topics and the detail of each. I would highly recommend this book to people who are looking to start out, or who are only able to read about it.

What a wonderful guide on living! This book shows you how to survive and thrive with simple, back-to-basics skills and instructions on how to do almost anything you'd ever need to know to live. Beautiful illustrations and a easy to use index. Everybody should own a copy of this book!

This is a wonderful book that teaches you everything you want to know about living the self-sufficient life (hence, the name of the book). I am a retired Navy guy and settled down for some country living with my wife and two boys and this book just opened up my eyes to how much I truly don't know about living on a farm. I highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to get back to basics. Word of warning when thinking about buying more of John Seymour's books, two of his titles are exactly the same on the inside, only the covers are different. Why he did that, I do not know. The books are "The NEW complete book of SELF-SUFFICIENCY" (The classic guide for realists and dreamers) and the other is "Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It" (The Complete Back-to-Basics Guide) These are the exact same books, don't waste your money on both like I did! Happy Reading!

Im A City person living in the city and i expected to always be in a city, But now that peak oil has or is about to happen im gathering as much lost skills as i can muster, The realy scary thing is i now sound like one of those nuts that i used to make fun of. things change. someone should write a book called " how to tell somemone about peak-oil without sounding like a nut"

EXCELENT BOOK one of the must haves.

This is probably the best book I have read on living the self-sufficient life style. It contains a lot of information with much detail on most topics.

No book can be all things to all people, but this one is pretty darn close. I've been a homesteader off and on for 25 years, and I've bought a lot of books, but this one is the best I've found.

Lavishly illustrated in full color, this DK book includes plenty of information for the beginner as well as the more experienced back-to-the-lander. My husband and I especially love the 1-Acre Plan and 5-Acre Plan, well illustrated with how the land should be divided up for maximum fertility and efficiency. We really like the instructions for sheep shearing which are half the work of what the Storey Guide tells you to attempt! We also enjoy the author's sense of humor and sense of what's important (and rejection of what's overemphasized in modern society). There is so much information in here that there's no way to absorb it in one sitting -- it's an extremely interesting and well-illustrated encyclopedia of self-sufficient living and an essential addition to your homestead library.

The only negatives are that it's written from a British perspective (some of the circumstances and animals are different here in the US) and that it isn't truly a 100% complete guide for all homesteaders wanting all information about everything related to rural living. But as I said before, what book can be? This one comes very, very close, and before long you'll find that it's becoming dog-eared and marked, smudged with garden soil, splashed with recipe ingredients, and worn in very nicely like a comfortable pair of practical shoes.

I am sure it is not the quentisential guide to all details pretaining to self sufficiency but in my humble city born and raised opinion, this is the perfect intro to all things self sufficient! This will get you started on everything, and from there read up on each subject individually by their own specialists. I think this is wize anyway since not one person can literally posses the knowledge on everything..or at least in a way that will go in to depth on problems! The book starts out with diagrams of several possible farm solutions, the city farm, the comunity farm, the 1 acre farm and the 5 acre farm. We just purchased a house with 6 acres and this is just what we needed to make the daunting task of turning a blank peice of land into our dreams! I hope you all will get as much from this book as I have in the 2 hours I just spent browsing it! I know that when I really dig into this book I will find it a valuable resource! Yeah for self sufficency!!

The book is very good. The information is extremely usefull. All potential customers shoud however know that "The Sel-Sufficient Life, and How To Live It" is identical to the book"The New complete book of Self Sufficiency" by the same author. While I would highly recomend this book do not order both books. Except for a few words changed in the intro and the preface the books are the same, page for page and chapter for chapter.

If you can't get your hands on Country Life by Paul Heiney, this is your next best bet. Nicely illustrated and covers all elements of what it takes to become reliant upon yourself and your land. This book would prove useful to anyone interested in any component of self-sufficiency from a small garden patch to a working farm.

I am really disappointed with the content of this book. It has beautiful glossy pictures, and a great deal on gardening and livestock - but skips important topics entirely. For gardening, this is the least valuable book that I have ever purchased. I expected this book would include a section on making lotions, but lotions were not covered at all. I use white vinegar extensively for cleaning, preserving, and cooking. The book includes vinegar as a needed ingredient for canning, but it did not go into how to make vinegar - a vital product for self sufficency. I bought a 'how to make vinegar' manual for under $3 from lehman's instead.

I was disapointed by this book. The book is written totally from the context of living in England. The author is a very poor communicator, he reminds me of an intellectual trying to explain how to farm with poetry and quotes from his vast knowledge of classic books.

I have been farming now for a few years and have some experience growing my own corn, vegatables etc.. I also raise catttle and horses. (I am also a licensed Vet in Texas) This author does not know what he is talking about on alot of animal husbandry issues and I see alot of ridiculous nonsense in his teachings of growing crops vegetables etc..

To make a long story short, if you live in the U.S. don't buy this book, it is really awful. There is a far better book...."The encyclopedia of country living" by Carla Emery

If you own only one book on self-sufficiency this should be it. A beautifully written, concise back to basics guide.

This would be the one! Not only is the book packed with priceless information, it's beautiful to look at. It really does cover most aspects of the skills you are likely to need as you move toward self sufficiency. It will also humble you. I was shocked by what I didn't even know I didn't know! How could I have made it this far without knowing such simple, logical and essential knowledge!?

I haven't bought my land yet, but I've been trying some of the techniques described in this book. It's just incredible. We have been sold a lie by governments and corporations and this book is an operations manual for undoing that lie and setting things right in the world. I couldn't recommend any book any more emphatically than this one.

As a family that has abandoned the city and suburbs for the countryside, the very presence of a book like John Seymour's "The Self-sufficient Life and How to Live It" is enough to inspire fits of joy. A perfect companion to works like Hemenway's "Gaia's Garden" and Mollison's "Permaculture: A Designer's Manual," this book is a must for would-be urbanites fleeing the cities. Covering every topic relevant to self-sufficient, sustainable living and farm life, Seymour's classic provides a great way to start a different life. An update from the venerable mid-Seventies edition of the book, this 2002 release is a fine improvement.

The book has quite a bit going for it:

1. Beautifully made, illustrated and laid-out, this book is meant to last and be used readily and often. Typical Dorling Kindersley quality.

2. An eye-friendly typeface and bright, semi-gloss pages make this easy reading.

3. The shear breadth of the information here is outstanding. Packed into 306 letter-sized pages are the following chapters:
*The Meaning of Self-Sufficiency
*Food from the Garden
*Food from Animals
*Food from the Fields
*Food from the Wild
*In the Dairy
*In the Kitchen
*Brewing & Wine-making
*Energy & Waste
*Crafts & Skills
*Things You Need to Know

4. Good specifics on all the categories of info listed above. You should be able to get started on your way to being people of the soil. Need to know how to kill, gut, and prepare your cattle? It's in here. Got a hankering to get off the electrical grid altogether? Helpful windmill buying advice is here. Can't tell rye from barley? You will after reading this book.

5. A helpful list of contacts and companies that can get you started on your dream are included.

But there are issues amid all this helpful advice:

1. The book makes some references to US-specific qualifiers on info, but it is quintessentially British. Some of the very helpful info simply does not apply to American would-be farmers.

2. There's a lot of the "green" credo here. Some of it is a bit condescending to anyone who doesn't share the author's opinions of life outside the farm. How well the reader handles this is up to the reader.

3. While the book is certainly comprehensive, considering how complex a shift from urban to rural living can be, it could have gone even deeper. (I know that I still had questions.) The book probably could have been twice its length and would still be a bargain.

4. Much of the advice here comes from a lone methodology for approaching self-sufficiency. Despite the update, there are some more cutting edge permaculture methods that can be more satisfying than what we find in Seymour's book.

All in all, despite the cons, this is a fine primer on self-sufficiency. Anyone looking to escape the rat race could hardly do better than to pick up a copy of "The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It."

This is an excellent purchase if your intention is to live
on a farm and survive off the land. The author defines self-
sufficiency and then goes about presenting hundreds of examples
of how to perform every kind of survival task. There is a
section on how to tie knots. The work describes brewing,
power generation from H2 O , as well as the wind. An entire
section describes soil types; such as, heavy clay, loam,
sand, peat and sowing seeds in late spring. This work is perfect
for the city person who knows nothing about basic survival
in the country or the wilderness. The author teaches virtually
every basic skill applicable to living outdoors. The book
is a worthy addition to any personal library.

This is a great book with great illustrations ... Simple yet detailled, practical yet principled. John Seymour has got a great good grasp of the ecological principles that SHOULD inform gardening and farming (what comes out must go back in).

In his other writings, Jonathan Seymour has a streak of anti-urbanism that I don't like--I don't share his view that cities are unnatural, diseased places. But he seems to have overcome it here with a description of urban gardens, limited-scale self-sufficiency and the like. This book lets you pick and choose; if you want to grow wheat on five acres, harrow, harvest, thresh and grind it yourself, that's fine. On the other hand, if you live on a half-acre lot and just want to set up a backyard garden, a compost pile and maybe a beehive, this book will also show you how.

Buy this book --- it's the real deal --- It's the 25 year-old-version updated beautifully. (I had the old one, but lost it along the way) All the fine line drawing are here, plus many colored faux wood-block illustrations.
Contents are as follows --- Foreword. Introduction.
Chapter 1 -The Meaning of Self-Sufficiency. Chapter 2 - Food from the Garden. Chapter 3 - Food From Animals. Chapter 4- Food From The Fields. Chapter 5 - Food From the Wild. Chapter 6 - In The Dairy. Chapter 7 - In The Kitchen. Chapter 8 - Brewing & Wine-Making. Chapter 9 - Energy & Waste. Chapter 10 - Crafts & Skills. Chapter 11- Things You Need To Know. Contacts & References. (many of these) Glossary. Index.
John Seymour also passes along much new wisdom, such as finding and working with other like-minded persons and urban gardening information. It's an absolutely excellent book, all 312 pages of it. It's a positive and uplifting expression of self-sufficiency that the world sorely needs.