Yesterday was Earth Day, and in keeping with the green spirit, I am offering another environmentally-minded post, a review of Almost Green: How I Saved 1/6th of a Billionth of the Planet, a very funny book written by James Glave, a man who really, really tried to save the planet, or at least himself.
In this book, the author relates the story of his and his wife's attempts to make their lives more eco-friendly, culminating in the building of the "Eco-Shed", his carbon-neutral writing studio. All the usual hijinks ensue when attempting to build from scratch--flaky architect, bureaucratic mazes, budget nightmares--along with plenty of new problems brought in by the scarcity of green materials and building methods on the author's small Canadian island community outside of Vancouver.
Despite the challenges marching steadily against him, Glave meets every one with moxie, even if he has to dredge it up from the depths of his weary, green soul. The book's cover illustration does an effectively cute job of conveying the cartoonish façade of cheerfulness and go-get-'em attitude Glave had to perfect to preserve his sanity throughout the mayhem, and the book itself is written with much wit and charm. I enjoyed it greatly, chuckling almost constantly and occasionally howling with laughter. Not only that, I learned loads of stuff about green construction and conservation methods without ever feeling like that's what I was there to do.
What makes this book particularly appealing is how well the typical reader can relate to Glave. He's not a green god; he's just like us, torn between wanting to do good for the planet and wanting a comfortable life, and worrying if those two things are perhaps mutually exclusive. After all, wouldn't everyone live the green life if we could just remember to recycle, had the time to hand-water the lawn, knew how to compost, could afford to shop organic and were in good enough shape to ride our bikes to work? Read this book, and besides getting a good laugh, you may even get some ideas about how to green up your little corner of the world!
Liked this review? Here's another: http://bucketofuseful.blogspot.com/2016/04/review-of-kaiser-chiefs-cd-yours-truly.html
Image from Pixabay https://pixabay.com/en/val-di-fassa-mountain-dolomites-1331004/
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