to lend: No Impact Man

[ceelove]

It took me several months to read No Impact Man (subtitle: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process). Not because it was drudgery to read it, but because so much of it was thought-provoking - and I had thought of myself as living a reasonably thought-provocative lifestyle already.

Manhattanites Colin Beavan and family try to reduce their waste and carbon over the course of a year, experimenting radically with how they live and discovering (often to their surprise) what they value. Beavan's point is not self-denial in order to be virtuous, but finding virtue and abundance in living differently.

If you're really resistant to the idea of substantially changing your lifestyle, do not read this book. If you wish to avoid the impetus to reconsider your choices, to look afresh at your behavoirs, to wonder what really makes you happy, do not read this book. Or the blog. Or see the movie (which I haven't yet seen, so can't recommend, but presumably it makes the same points).

I'm done with mine for now. Anyone local want to borrow?

Comments

[jadia.livejournal.com]

Me!

[ceelove.livejournal.com]

Will you get to it soon? i.e., are you the first person I should hand it to?

[jadia.livejournal.com]

I'm probably hard to hand to until our next appt so if someone else wants it first go ahead. :) When I get it I read fast though.

[ceelove.livejournal.com]

Handing it off at next appt is fine.

[medyani.livejournal.com]

In a year or so! :)

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

I'm going to reserve it at the library here...

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

I want to read it but not for a few weeks. Put me in line? :)

[beah.livejournal.com]

Yes, please.

[fernling.livejournal.com]

YAY! Not only did you like it, but you're continuing the second-handedness of it. Not all my presents to you get such accolade. Speaking of which--and I was thinking of this earlier today anyway, so yet another reminder to ask!--did Andrew pass on my "Cualidad Cubana" mp3 mix for you? Any comments on that? The ones I 'specially love are the tango-techno albums, by Bajofondo and Gotan Project. Lemme know!

[ceelove.livejournal.com]

I tried it in three players, none of which would play it, and then Carl took my car (where I'm sure it'll play) for a month, so I put it in my "to be listened to" pile. But now I have my car back, so...

[fernling.livejournal.com]

Well, I went for quantity. It's an mp3 cd, with multiple albums' worth so you'd get an overarching idea of what I've been tuning into these days. If you put it on your computer, you could make more cd-player-friendly versions of bits of it at a time, of course.

[ceelove.livejournal.com]

Well, thus far B-Tribe didn't grab me and Balafondo really really did, so I haven't made it farther. :P But I'll let you know what I think when I've heard it all.

My computer is actually kind of cranky these days, most specifically about its CD drive, so no go there. It's about five years old, so I'm halfway expecting it to fail at any time. But no worries, my car is a good place to listen to it. :)