What he chose to live in is material poverty, not spiritual poverty.
If the basic needs like warmth and food are fulfilled, you have time for other things like reading.
As Erich Fromm put it, you either
have, or
are. (To have or to be)
If you need to buy things regularly to be happy, you have a problem.
Sometimes when i am in a super mareket and look at some even nice goods, i am very happy to think "No i will NOT buy this".
Although his lifestyle is a bit in-between, since he uses a chainsaw, a high-tech tricycle and some other things you would not be able to acquire or maintain, when the Zombie apocalypse strikes
