Saturday, December 6, 2008

The Urban Hermit by Sam MacDonald



For all the "lovable slackers" of the world...

Not living up to your potential? Credit cards maxed out? Behind on your bills? Living paycheck to paycheck? Motivated by beer? Aged 25 going on 17? Choosing jobs based on enjoyment as opposed to financial gain, or even, security?

This just may be the book for you!

In 2000, Yale graduate Sam MacDonald found himself tiring of certain aspects of this life-style and decided a drastic change was the only way past it. His motivating factor...the creditors. It was time to pay off the credit cards and change his life.

The plan was quite obvious: For one month he would simply spend less money. What could be easier? Hello to an extra job. Good-bye to beer. Good-bye to food. Sam was changing his life by changing his diet! For just $8 dollars a week he was able to fill his, soon to be, shrinking belly with lentils and canned tuna. That's it. Nothing more. But he weighs at least 300lbs and it's only for a month, so why not?

In The Urban Hermit, Sam MacDonald chronicles this extreme time of his life. Working as a journalist at a weekly newspaper, every penny that he "saves" through his new budgeting plan is sent to his creditors. Unfortunately, this leaves nothing put aside for life's little twists and turns:

A trip to Bosnia.
A trip to Montana to hang out with Hippies.
A dead car.

Everybody knows or has known a guy like Sam MacDonald. He's a young man with many personal failings and an optimistic outlook on life. He accepts who he is and is an easy-going, affable man. Sure, he has stresses in his life, but he's not going to let that get in the way of his weekends!

The Urban Hermit is a book that can be recommended to just about anybody. I can't imagine who wouldn't enjoy it. MacDonald portrays himself as such a likable and real character with his sheer honesty, the good, the bad and the "what were you thinking...".

This is a ridiculously funny book, seemingly, without setting out to be funny. The humor is just the natural result of living within ones means and still living in the real world. And, of course, the result of a personality like Sam MacDonald's.

Title: The Urban Hermit
Author: Sam MacDonald
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 978-0-312-37699-4

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This one sounds very interesting. Thanks for the heads up. Looks like the library I work for has ordered 6 copies and I put in for one of them. No clue when they will be in, but I will probably blog about this one too.

Anonymous said...

I could so NOT live on tuna and lentils.