The Book of Do: A Manual for Living – a beautifully wise book about living well

I’ve long been a fan of The Do Book Co’s little guides to life. Including volumes as diverse as Do Sourdough and Do Birth, their books are full of inspiration to kindle your creativity, do more of what you love, and take time for life’s simple pleasures.

When I wrote Simple Business last year, my book about creating a business that fits around the life you want to lead, I wondered more than once how I could approach it in a similar way to the Do folks.

So, of course, I was excited to see their new book for 2023: The Book of Do: A Manual for Living (Available now if you’re in the UK or from September 5 in the US.)

The wonderful thing about The Book of Do is that it brings the best of their 34 books together into a gorgeously crafted and delightfully wise single volume.

As the book’s foreword shares, it’s a manual of wisdom and advice on how to live a fuller and more sustainable life, work smarter, or even find the courage to leap to a different path.

The themed sections include Change, Ideas, Work, Team, Creativity, Sustainability, and You.

Miranda West, Founder & Publisher of The Do Book Co, introduces the book with these wonderful lines:

“It’s funny, magical even, how an inanimate object like a book has the power to change lives. To make us get up and move, start something, have new ideas, change direction.”

Oh, how wise that is. As you slowly peruse the pages of this lovely book, you’ll probably notice the surfacing of some ideas as well as motivation to nurture them into being.

During my own reading, I was reminded of a few things. The first (which usually comes to mind with books such as these) was to carve out as much time as I can each day for writing and reading.

The book’s gorgeous sections about sustainability and nature also highlighted how much I’m looking forward to spending more time on our apartment balconies this summer. Looking outside, flowers are blooming (our Mock Orange featured in the photos in this post) and our tomatoes and cucumbers are showing the first signs of fruit.

I hope reading this can help you to create, enjoy, and share more, too. To borrow more sage words from another Do Book, Do Fly, “Make things that matter so you can leave them behind for others.”

The Book of Do will be a wonderful addition to your bookshelves if you – or a loved one – want to craft a more meaningful and joyful life, whatever that looks like to you. It’s even more specifically for you if…

• You want to wake up each morning with a deeper purpose
• You’re making big changes in life and could do with a pep talk to keep going
• You want to make a leap in life but need to find your courage
• You want to infuse your life with more creativity, especially if you have your own business

I’ll be keeping this book close to hand – and almost certainly sharing it with others as a beautiful book gift this year. If you treat yourself to your own copy, I hope you find it as gently wise and inspiring as I have.

If you’re in the UK, you can already get your copy (Bookshop / Amazon), while readers in the US can preorder for September 5 (Bookshop / Amazon).