Just Enough

Finally got around to reading “Just Enough” by Azby Brown, a truly fascinating book. What’s it about? I can’t say it better than the book jacket...”Just enough is a book of stories and sketches depictions of vanished ways of life told from the point of view of a contemporary observer. Faced with a country on the brink of disaster, it’s environment pushed to the edge through overly aggressive use of natural resources government and people overcame many of the problems that confront us today - issues of energy, water, materials, food and population.
The book is absolutely fascinating. There are essentially six chapters, the odd chapters detail the daily life of (and sometimes through the eyes of) a farmer, carpenter, and samurai. Azby does a fantastic job of covering every detail exhaustively, so the reader gets a true sense of what life is truly life. The even chapters detail what we can learn from their lives. This is where the book distinguishes itself and truly shows it worth. The book should be part of the curriculum of every high school student for it provides so many answers (or, for the most progressive North Americans, starting points) for how we can make our countries, cities and towns, individuals lives more sustainable and hopefully show us how wonderful a new sustainable life could be.