Book excerpt: This booklet is a practical guide to living in a tipi. There is no set of rules about how a tipi should be used, but if there were, Patrick Whitefield would be as qualified to write them as anyone. He has lived in a self-built tipi for more than eight years, and built them professionally for four.The appeal of a tipi is as much spiritual as practical. The circle is an organic, healing shape, especially for anyone who has spent a lifetime living in rectangles. Tipis are strong, roomy, weatherproof, tough, portable, and, perhaps most significantly, have a self-contained, open hearth. As a result, the tipi dweller's daily rhythms are much more in tune with those of the natural world. They become an integral part of the web of life.This concise booklet information (48 pages) combines practical information with lifestyle issues. Information includes: -- Choosing a tipi -- Pitching and siting -- Tipi maintenance -- Heating and cooking -- FurnishingThis little book makes an elegant statement about how over complicated our lives have become. What passes for simple living in other books looks like life in the fast lane compared to the lifestyle espoused in this book