5 books about chucking it all for country living

This is the time of year – when it’s been freezing for two months and the city is covered with dirty snow that won’t melt for another six weeks – that I dream of trading it all in for a simpler life. You know, one complete with farm animals, caves for aging cheese, and a vegetable garden large enough to supply all of Manhattan with frisée. I'll never do it – I can't really live without groceries delivered to my apartment, mass transit, and access to Korean food at all hours – but I can at least read about it. Here are five amazing, hilarious, utterly charming books brought to you by people, crazier, more desperate, and with even less impulse control than I: the ones who actually did it.