The Way Home

Tales from a Life Without Technology

By: Mark Boyle

Narrated by: Gerard Doyle

It was 11:00 pm when I checked my email for the last time and turned off my phone for what I hoped would be forever.

No running water, no car, no electricity or any of the things it powers: the internet, phone, washing machine, radio, or light bulb. Just a wooden cabin, on a smallholding, by the edge of a stand of spruce.

The Way Home is a modern-day Walden - an honest and lyrical account of a remarkable life lived in nature without modern technology. Mark Boyle, author of The Moneyless Man, explores the hard-won joys of building a home with his bare hands, learning to make fire, collecting water from the stream, foraging, and fishing.

What he finds is an elemental life, one governed by the rhythms of the sun and seasons, where life and death dance in a primal landscape of blood, wood, muck, water, and fire - much the same life we have lived for most of our time on earth. Revisiting it brings a deep insight into what it means to be human at a time when the boundaries between man and machine are blurring.

©2019 Mark Boyle (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

AMAZING

I hope everyone gets the opportunity to be inspired by this title, simple and true to the heart.

inspirational

Mark caught me from the moment I started listening to the book. Several years ago I started my journey to lead a more simple life. I won't make it as far as he has - I'm a 67 year old single woman with many physical limitations. But, there are actions I have taken already. Such as turning off the news, disengaging from social networks, repurposing more and more of my items, recycling, growing my own food, trying to live small in a world that celebrates consumption, indulgence, the quick fix, and living BIG. "The Way Home " reinforces my actions and gives me hope that more and more people will take note and follow the path to a simpler life.

One of my new favorite books

This is beautiful in the simplicity of it. it's wonderful how nothing is everything and everything is nothing.

Very thought provoking listen!

He makes great points of where do we draw the line between man & machines.

Thoughtful Assessment of Our “Lost in Cyberspace” Dilemma

Mark Boyle covers more ground than our relationship with our devices. In fact, to use a play on words, he mentions planting hundreds of trees. He counters criticism with his year long experiment living using only simpler and older technologies than the myriad gadgets and energy that runs em that most of us surround ourselves with. Tells about an increase in feeling alive, appreciation of friendly exchanges between people, and awareness of natural surroundings. He quotes Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters’ phrase about becoming “comfortably numb”.

Review

A modern day Walden! An intriguing view in a modern day of seemingly numerous conveniences.

Man thinks....man does

This was a great listen. Makes you think long and hard about your impact on the world and those around you. How many of us make the difficult choice to LIVE by our ideals like the author does? I suspect that most people only ever THINK of taking action, but Mr. Boyle actually creates a lifestyle around his ideals. The irony of listening to this book while commuting to my corporate job is not lost on me. This book gave me much to ponder and I have been thinking about it since. Highly recommend this book.

Book

This book was interesting. Seems well written. At times confusing back and forth. I did not like the narrators voice. Seems to old for the writer, who is telling his story.

A Good Reason to Stop and Be Still for Awhile

I love Walden by Thoreau and this book is right along in that vain. There is plenty to think about in this book.

The Way Home

What I liked: Details. About how he did it and how he got there. The sacrifices he made. The history of the Blasket Islands, which to me was something I had no knowledge of.

What I did not like: Too much moralizing. I agree with a lot of what he says but I wish he would get into specifics a little more. Destruction of the planet and people comes more by way of a story he reads in the newspaper he’s about to burn, or in a fleeting memory. He only seems to go deep when the book is almost done. He also returns to pornography, which comes off as … weird.
Anyway, an interesting account of one person’s plan and sacrifice to leave behind the modern world, one that can be wasteful and destructive. And an interesting primer on the vanished life on the Blasket.
Gerald Doyle reads with a nice pace, clear and concise. If it matters, Doyle does not sound like a man in his 30’s, as Boyle was at the time of this book (it didn’t matter to me).