Mark Boyle: The Moneyless Man Reviewed
Mark 
Boyle is a man of strange contrasts. In his book The Moneyless Man he tells the story of how he managed to live for a full twelve months without spending a penny. Subtitled “a year of freeconomic living” Boyle tells the story of how his distaste for money and the negative effects of our capitalist society led him to begin his challenging lifestyle change.
And yet while the book paints a fascinating picture one has to ask the obvious question about the ethical minefield of writing and selling a book all about how we’re spending too much money on unecessary frivolities.
Furthermore while Boyle manages to get around this sticky situation by explaining at the end of the book that all the royalties will be used to buy a piece of land to create a sustainable centre for the promotion of the “freeconomic lifestyle” this has further angered his critics who claim that buying a piece of land in order to live on it for free is something of a contradiction in terms.
There are other stark contrasts shown in The Moneyless Man. For one, the author seems to shy away from the “hippy” culture regularly throughout the book having concerns that certain eco events he visits will have “too much Chai Tea and Tai Chi for my taste”. Yet in various other passages of the book he goes completely against this by waxing lyrical about the importance of peace and how he spent many evenings dancing around a campfire with friends.
Mark begins the book with an educated glimpse into the negative aspects of money called “Why Moneyless” which, for me, was the most interesting and erudite chapter of the book. This chapter alone stands out and in my opinion makes the whole book well worth a read purely for these few pages.
Soon afterwards the actual year begins. Mark manages to “freecycle” an old caravan which, with permission, he puts on an organic farm. He washes in the river and uses only a home-made stove for heating and cooking. A small solar panel provides minimal power for his laptop and mobile phone so he can communicate with the environmental community about his experiences.
He forages for food or, like all good freeconomists, goes skip diving. He cycles or walks and tries to embrace an attitude of giving assuming that if he gives enough without thought of getting anything back in return sooner or later some other person will provide him with what he needs.
I’ll leave you to read the book in order to find out whether or not Mark achieves his goal but what I will say that it makes a fascinating and easy read worthy of a relaxing read in the spring sunshine. For me the useful “asides” and resource list in the book covering many everyday situations and how to address them in a sustainable manner make useful and interesting reading on their own and provided me with plenty of ideas I shall be trying out myself.
Of course few of us realistically could or would want to give up money altogether to go and live in a damp caravan, hitch a lift or cycle everywhere and eat food thrown out by supermarkets so while the book makes an interesting and enjoyable read it has very limited practical benefits in my opinion.
I suppose the most important point of the book is simply to show a different perspective on capitalism and to provide a large volume of “food for thought”. Indeed throughout the book I found myself gently putting it down for a moment, gazing into space and considering a particular point worthy of further thought and consideration.
Add it to your summer reading list today if you want to see what can really be achieved when you put your mind to it. The Moneyless Man is available from Amazon here
Related Eco Friendly Articles:
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- Book Review: Free – Adventures On The Margins Of A Wasteful Society by Katherine Hibbert
Other Eco Friendly Articles We Recommend:
- A Week Before Christmas At The Urban Garden (gbronner)
- A New Spring Day At The Urban Garden (gbronner)
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You can't in this day and age live for free. At least not for long he may have not spent a penny but I am sure he traded for things. He just replaced one form of currency with another. Why write the book he could have instead wrote an ebook and saved the paper and gave it away for free,
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