Itsumo Mawaru

Country Life: A handbook for realists and dreamers, by Paul Heiney, 1998, DK Publishing.
Rating:

Come on, who can argue with a title like that? I’m both a dreamer and realist, so this book appealed to me right off the bat!

Another thing that appealed to me even before opening the book was the cover, which includes many items photographed on a white background. I’ve found that any book which has such pictures tends to be a high quality book filled with great information, thankfully this is true with this book as well.

This style of book is one I've known all my life, and one I implicitly trust to be of value to me.

Country Life covers all sorts of topics related to having a farm in the country, from tending the grounds to producing food and animals, to using these items in their final products. The book dedicates pairs of information-packed pages to the most common of animals (chicken, ducks, geese, sheep, goats, pigs, cows, horses) as well as casually covering other less common animals (bees, rabbits, alpacas and llamas). The book also contains an in-depth evaluation into farming fields of hay/corn as well as fostering a great pasture. While the book does contain information on growing vegetables and fruits, the information is not as in depth as can be found in more dedicated bo0ks such as The Self Sufficient Gardener by John Seymour.

That said, I find this book has immense value because it is not as in depth as other books are. Country Life is the perfect book to keep on your coffee table, to casually flip through when you have a moment or for curious visitors to gain more insight into what you do. The visual design of the book is such that one can open it to a random page and learn a new fact in a few seconds, or can equally read the book from cover to cover.

These information charts are scattered throughout the book. They do a great job at summarizing the information, allowing you to quickly contrast and compare elements.

The only way I could see this book being improved is if it contained more information of what to do with the produced items. Only the last twenty or so pages is about this topic, and covers such mundane and well discussed items as making bread and preserves. I would like to see more artistic and creative endeavours included. The book is admittedly aimed at people who do not intend to make this into a profitable venture, so it would have been nicer to see more information on doing things which are also not profitable, such as processing the fleece from start to finish, or creating baskets of goods for friends.

Country Life is a book I will be adding to my permanent collection. It reminds me greatly of those educational casual encyclopedia-style books I read while growing up, and in the same vein it delivers a great amount of information in a fun to read format. I rate this book 4.5 stars out of 5, and would highly recommend this book to anyone looking at starting a small farm.