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Little House on a Small Planet: Simple Homes, Cozy Retreats, and Energy Efficient Possibilities | 
 enlarge | Author: Shay Salomon
Creators: Frances Moore Lappe, Nigel Valdez
Publisher: The Lyons Press
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $13.57
You Save: $6.38 (32%)
New (33) Used (13) from $11.65
Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 17801
Media: Paperback
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 1592288685
Dewey Decimal Number: 728.37047
EAN: 9781592288687
ASIN: 1592288685
Publication Date: September 1, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews: Read 18 more reviews...
 learn to live large by living in a small house September 23, 2006
Kenneth G. Samson (chestertown, md)
94 out of 96 found this review helpful
This extraordinary book provides not only case studies from all around North America, [including costs, monthly energy expenses, and profiles of the owners] it goes further by introducing philosophical studies on the zen of living large in a small space, freeing the mind for the pursuit of inner happiness by removing the contemporary stresses of maintaining not only large living spaces but also the 'things' that fill today's mega houses. While i had already decided before i found this book to downsize from the 3300 square feet of my present home to something in the area of 1000 square feet, this book made me realize i could go much further, and now my dream home is under 300 square feet! I am being relentless in the my pursuit, giving away or selling all the dregs that make up my former life.
this book is amazing February 27, 2007
polit reader (arizona)
39 out of 39 found this review helpful
It is much much more than a set of floorplans. It is a guide to a happy life in your home. Here's a quote "do you want to live in a home or a bank?" - So many people look at their home as an investment first, and dont really look at how happy they really are in their house.
This book made a major difference in how I look at my existing house. My fiancee and I are using the insights from the book to happily merge two households into one - without "space wars". It has given me insight which enabled me to feel that "I own my house - my house does not own me". There are lovely photographs and ideas - as well as a great sprinkling of history and insightful thoughts throughout the book.
Like the small but elegant domiciles the authors highlight, this book is no assembly-line product... it is obviously a carefully constructed labor of love.
 For crunchy people with resources. April 17, 2008
Dixie Diamond (Texas)
31 out of 39 found this review helpful
It didn't tell me anything I didn't already know and it made a lot of blanket assumptions about people who want to live in something bigger than a garden shed. Maybe it's just that I'm an introvert, but asking me to live in a pile of people in a house with minimal privacy and elbow room is a recipe for mass murder.
The house shapes and building materials are diverse, but the people featured in them, in many ways, are not. There is really only one working-class family. Most of them are people with at least some degree of financial or occupational flexibility (freelancers, telecommuters, self-employed, people who could afford to have a spouse either stay home or work reduced hours; people whose jobs provided sufficient income at a part-time level); a surprising number had family or friends who could make them low-interest loans. Most of the houses are in suburban, small-town/bedroom community, semi-rural, or rural areas where housing prices are often a bit lower but where there are fewer jobs. Several of the small older houses featured cost twice as much as my parents' large house (which, yes, they had to buy to get us into a good school district and safe neighborhood. Such is life in a major metropolitan area). I was hoping this would be more city-oriented since, if we all move to the country, it will no longer be the country. The author decries the bulldozing of greenspace for cheap subdivisions, but the small-house-on-large-lot option is financially out of reach for many people and also contributes to sprawl (small planet, remember?). We can't all live on Walden Pond.
I was a bit surprised that she was so quick to advocate converting the garage to house space, even after you've decluttered. Unless you can get rid of your car, how about putting the car back into the garage? Garaged cars last longer, which reduces pollution since fewer cars go to scrap.
This book is not very useful unless you have the time, money, and support network to allow you a fair amount of lifestyle flexibility. If you live in a city, have a job that requires fixed hours and requires you to be on-site, and are single and comparatively low-income, and don't have an extensive and strong family/friends support network, only the more superficial suggestions apply (like getting a more energy-efficient refrigerator. Duh). It's not that I'm a McMansion fan or anything; I'm not, but this isn't a realistic solution for many of us.
A small house must read..... July 14, 2007
MotherLodeBeth (Sierras of California)
29 out of 29 found this review helpful
I was skeptical when I first heard of the book since the cover had photos of what I considered some old, boring small homes. Then I looked closer and saw there were some really interesting looking ones like I have seen in Mexico, Greece and along the coasts of France, Italy and Spain and even in Scotland and Ireland.
Like that the author challenges the reader to really set aside notions that one had about how things have to be done. And how thinking outside the box, and asking oneself how little does one need to be content and how can that thinking be applied to designing or redoing a small home to make it more livable as well as more calm and enjoyable.
And how to use materials that are reclaimed but also energy efficient and appealing to the eyes. And a home that will allow you to live well and below your means. In fact I lay in bed and realized the small cottage I live in that was built in the late 1800's is to big for me. That I want something clean, small and open.
And the book may make you go even further as I have done, and sell off a lot of stuff one has that one doesn't need nor often even want. Almost like being told that a really cool sailboat with living quarters below can be yours within two weeks, and you then get really serious and sort out what you really need and then make the move.
This book should challenge as well as inspire the reader. Even the one who thought owning a McMansion was the only way to go.
Twice the Satisfaction for Half the House February 14, 2007
David L. Wann (Colorado)
27 out of 27 found this review helpful
Shay Salomon is not just writing conceptually -- she writes about the intrinsic values of small houses from personal experience, and shares those values in this great, lushly-illustrated book. She's also a builder of small houses, and has dedicated her energies to promoting the idea that with smaller houses, we'll consume less, maintain less, need less money to be happy, and use less energy. This book makes good reading even if a small house isn't in your immediate future -- the stories about how to use space well, and the social benefits of well-designed, smaller houses are full of insights and human interest.
A lot of work went into writing and illustrating "Little House..." and the reader benefits from it!
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