Daily Tip: Read a Book : amystodghill

Daily Tip: Read a Book

By Amy Stodghill • August 24, 2007

So you want to move your green reading offline, but don’t know where to start? Here’s a few recent titles and some eco-classics to get you started.

The green classics. For the nature loving, conservationists look for notable authors such as Aldo Leopold, and Henry David Thoreau. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, the book that created an awareness of the effects of DDT, could be considered as green reading 101, as it is the book that nearly all environmentalists have on their shelf. Green design concept, Cradle to Cradle, by William McDonough and Michael Braungart also falls into that category.

Other notable authors to consider include biologist E.O. Wilson, Paul Hawken (Ecology of Commerce, Natural Capitalism), Bill McKibben (End of Nature), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma), David Quammen (Monster of God) or Janine Benyus (Biomimicry).

Green tech. If you want to get a little more technical check out titles from Amory Lovins (Winning the Oil Endgame), books on green technology such as The Clean Tech Revolution, or Joseph Romm’s The Hype About Hydrogen, or other renewable energy books such as The Renewable Energy Handbook or Smart Power.

Kids books. You can even get your kids reading green. GO’s Kelli Best-Oliver , and Jennifer Lance have discussed children’s literature with green topics.

Green living. There is no shortage of books on how-to’s and tips on greening your life. For living and eating local, check out Barbara Kingslover’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, or Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally by Alisa Smith and J. B. MacKinnon. For simple tips, A Slice of Organic Life has a lot to offer. For green building and architecture GO’s Philip Proefrock has reviewed Ten Shades of Green: Architecture and the Natural World.

Of course this is not a complete list. What books would you recommend?

Amy says: Some of my personal favorites are Power to the People, Vijay Vaitheeswaran; Green to Gold, Daniel Esty and Andrew Winston; The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan; Big Coal, Jeff Goodell.

What to do when you’re finished reading? Here’s a daily tip on what to do with books you’re ready to pass on.

Environmental Defense’s Most Inspirational Book List

Grinning Planet’s list of environmental reads

Books reviewed by GO:

Weekend Book Review: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Book Review: Bill McKibben’s Hope, Human and Wild

Green Building Tour: Ten Shades of Green — Book Review

Weekend Book Review: The Rough Guide to Shopping with a Conscience

Paul Hawken Releases New Book, Tour to Stop in So Cal

Kids Will Love Green-Themed Novel

Green Family Values: Environmental Children’s Literature

How To Survive Global Warming – The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook