than anything, this is a good reference book with a wide variety of ideas about how to live in a more earthfriendly way, The book is well organized, with tons of websites to help the reader find out more about everything from activism to buying more sustainable products, A bit preachy at times, especially as most readers are already wanting to do more, the book is nevertheless useful, The tips are good, but the Its Easy Being Green's organization is pretty sloppy, The formatting multiple columns in a normalsized book, numerous "sidebar" conversations made it hard for me to find the main thread, When I was done with it, I felt as though I'd read a dozen different magazines about green living lots of information, not a lot of coherency or prioritization.
But that said, I was able to use several of the tips and it's a good resource, I bought this at the Seattle Green Festival, I had been eyeing it for a while, A great book for of ideas of ways to live a life with less impact, complete with a rating system to say keep track of what you need to work on, currently working on and a wonderful resource guide full of tips and websites.
I guess that a lot of these "green living" books bore me, thanks to my mom, This was just the way we lived recycling, thrift shopping, composting, etc,
The list was nice it's always nice to see that I am on top of most greenliving goals and I can certainly see it being very useful for someone needing a clear idea of what to do.
It's a good, basic list that you can pick and choose from, see where you are already working, where you can work harder, and get new ideas to apply.
This book is a great intro to green living, It goes over several of the things we have all heard before, but also goes a step further into living an environmentally friendly life, I especially liked the chapter with the checklists and the chapter with resources, I originally got this to help with planning our wedding, and I think there are several things we will be able to use as we are putting together our wedding
plans.
Packed full of nice tips, I really like the fact that this book was printed on recycled paper, Try to find it at your library instead of buying it because it doesn't have any new information unless like me! you know nothing about livin' the green life.
This slim volume is the Cliff Notes every lazy environmentalist or wannabe envirnmentalist needs to start taking better care of the planet, without breaking a sweat, So many people want to do things to improve the environment, but knowing where to start and what to focus on is such a daunting task that it's easier just to fall into old patterns.
With short chapters and checklists to help you track your progress, this book allows you to change your habits NOW, without feeling guilty or overwhelmed, I, myself, no longer waste as much water as I did before I started the book, I also now carry my water and juice in a Sigg a reusable container instead of buying wasteful bottled water and juices, and I waste far less paper at work.
And all that has been from reading the book for a half an hour! And it's been completely painless I don't even think about it anymore! Which means I can move on to new challenges, and then new challenges after that! It's that easy! Meh.
This is a good companion to "The Green Book," which told you a lot of what not to do, whereas this one tells you more what TO do and where TO shop and what different labels mean and everything.
A great resource. And, it didn't condemn be for my fake "holiday tree," so that's a plus! I really like checklists so this book had a lot of appeal for me.
I was keeping up with the environmentallyfriendly tasks for a while but I've completely gone back to my resourcewasting ways, Don't judge me. I love the information and tops this book has about the saving the environment and being a responsible citizen through wise consuming,
I only gave it four because, though it was informative, most of the other details are based in US and it would have been a better book if it was generally for everyone.
This book has a lot of lists and things to do, but the format makes it less interesting, However, it does have some very good comic and quotes to capture your attention, I feel like I can get most of this information online, so it is not very helpful for me,
Favorite Quote: "People can turn things around by making small, incremental efforts to green their lives today and then keep going, You can accomplish meaningful preservation and conservation every day by learning how daily chores and decisions impact the environment and making simple adjustments that can make a difference.
" PageIncludes an extensive checklist of todo items to help you live more earthfriendly, There are also a few chapters that just list helpful web sites with information or products,
It's really more of a workbook than a book you read from cover to cover, but she shares some great ideas in a practical way.
I like that she helps you start small and make little changes at a time, She doesn't make you feel guilty for not jumping right in and changing everything at once, Most of the ideas are relatively easy changes to make, I had a hard time trying to decide what to rate this book, While it had a lot of good tips and ideas, it also had a lot of outdated ideas, ideas that just plain disturbed me, and so many links to websites and really it seemed you could learn much more just by using your computer and never touching this book.
This book claims that it is a handbook for EarthFriendly Living and it breaks itself into different parts to complete that mission, First it exposes those Green Living Myths and says what the actual truth about living green is, Like saying that green products are expensive and instead explaining why they are not expensive, Next it talks about how the average person can make a difference, regardless of how busy they are, Part Three covers EcoTips for living greener and includes checkboxes so you can keep track of how you are doing, These tips range from travel to cleaning to food, Buying Green is next and it tells you what to look for and some common terms when looking at labels, Green Shopping Online is a huge listing of websites dedicated to green products, And getting involved has more online listings so you can get involved with campaign writing and other initiatives, Lastly there are Resources to help the Earth, which again, is a listing of online sites,
My main problem with this book is that it is mostly online listings of websites, You could easily look up all this information without this book just by typing in what you're searching for, So in buying this book, you actually wasted a resource in that regard, Next, because websites close down, change, etc, this book is ineffective even only six years later as not all of those sites are around anymore although some still are, The next problem I had was with some of the tips, There was actually a tip saying that you should use your microwave for cooking and reheating more than your stove because it saves energy, Ok, in theory this is true, but microwave cooking also breaks down the nutrients in your food, which could cause you to be less healthy, and use up more resources later to improve your health as a result of not eating properly.
Then there was the tip on how to reuse film canisters, Let's be honest, who in the heck has seen a film canister lately! And while there were quite a few tips, most of them were more appropriate for a beginner, or just common sense.
Although I should say that I learned a few things from this book, so it wasn't a total waste,
My main thought is that if you are going to call a book a handbook, the information should be there for you to look at, not listed in an online website for you to go look up later.
It should more appropriately be called a guide, And I do like that it encourages Green Living, I just don't think that it's a lasting book or one that should be referenced now that it seems to have gotten outdated.
It did have an easy to read format and was broken down into logical parts, The typing is small though and may be harder for older people or people with weak eyesight to read,
There are better Green Living books out there to read or even websites really and while I can appreciate what this book was trying to do, I can't recommend it for reading.
It's Easy Being Green
Copyright
pages
by M, Reynard
More of my reviews can be found at sitelinkwww, ifithaswords. blogspot. com Practical, realistic tips, I found "It's Easy Being Green" to be horribly slapped together, with nothing new to offer anyone who's been around since "green" became popular, At least they recycled ideas I don't know, maybe a total noob to the green scene would find something to learn in here, which I guess would redeem it a little bit.
There are typos throughout this book, never a good sign they make me cranky even when I'm reading a GOOD book, In this book, they reinforced the feeling that someone threw together a bunch of obvious "hints" in order to make a quick buck,
I couldn't bring myself to do anything but page through this one a couple of times, this book has a section devoted to energy conserving ideas, i was very pleased to see all that was suggested many perfectly reasonable and it gets you thinking.
. . ill have this book around for a while just to look back on and see what else i can do to change things! This is a really quick and easy read with lots of good ideas for ways to green your household and your life.
My main complaint is the way it was organizedthe meat of the book is one long section composed of lots and lots of tips, So it's easy to digest, but not easy to pinpoint something specific, But there's a good section with resources and websites in the back, All in all, I'd recommend it, ifdidn't mean really liked it, i'd go with that, but it partially, really turned me off, so i just can't, however, it is a super userfriendly guide to being greener, also, there's a good companion website: sitelinkwww, greenmatters. com.
i'd like to give this book two separate ratingsfor the comprehensive, yet concise and well organized content, and, the Its Easy Being Green's physical form is nice, it has a place in my goto drawer in the kitchen,
but, i'd give itstar for being preachy, presumptuous, condescending, patronizing, annoying, etc,
and, the title is totally a lie, but, if we're going to save the planet, we've got to spread this lie and the one about it not being expensive, too far and wide,
ms. trask has done a good thing, and i appreciate it, so i feel bad for being harsh, but moralistic "Our obligation to at least try to pay our own way in life, raise our children into healthy, productive and ethical members of society, and lighten our impact on the earth, among other things, is real.
" attitudes and the government is always the only/best solutionism really perturb me, Pretty awesome book. Very informative, and I really like the checklist, Nice resources in the back, and I will definitely investigate them once they become more pertinent to me, It includes a lot of simple ways lessen your ecological footprint, and there are also several complex ways to practice later on, .