Living green

Want to know what it would take to live green? This book might give you some ideas.

Author Doug Fine wanted to know if he could eliminate his carbon footprint by living green, and de decided to do so by starting a farm life in New Mexico. He bought a ranch and did everything he could to go green: a truck powered by waste oil from restaurants, solar panels to power his electronics and pump water, and grow his own food by planting vegetables and starting his own chicken and goat farms.

As one could imagine, things didn't start out easy to say the least. There were so many things to learn, so many hand-on work to do, so many disappointments. While frustrated initially, the author seemed to cope quite well to the changes and additional responsibilities, showing great sense of humour and positivity.

While the book offers some ideas on how to go green, the author also inserted some interesting statistics and recipes throughout his work. Somehow, this book reminded me of "Walden" by Henry David Thoreau, even though I haven't even read it yet. Perhaps it was because both books, to my understanding, shared similar themes of back-to-nature, being independent and self-reliance, living outside of the environment and society that they were familiar with, living off the land, working with their own hands, etc. Made me want to read "Walden", which I happened to bought it recently for only RM 5.

But I know this book won't be easy to read, as explained by writer, bicyclist and webmaster Ken Kifer,
"Walden is a difficult book to read for three reasons: First, it was written by a gifted writer who uses surgically precise language, extended, allegorical metaphors, long and complex paragraphs and sentences, and vivid, detailed, and insightful descriptions. Thoreau does not hesitate to use metaphors, allusions, understatement, hyperbole, personification, irony, satire, metonymy, synecdoche, and oxymorons, and he can shift from a scientific to a transcendental point of view in mid-sentence. Second, its logic is based on a different understanding of life, quite contrary to what most people would call common sense. Ironically, this logic is based on what most people say they believe. Thoreau, recognizing this, fills Walden with sarcasm, paradoxes, and double entendres. He likes to tease, challenge, and even fool his readers. And third, quite often any words would be inadequate at expressing many of Thoreau's non-verbal insights into truth. Thoreau must use non-literal language to express these notions, and the reader must reach out to understand."

"Farewell, My Subaru" was obviously much easier to read and more in line with the current trend of reducing carbon footprint through lowering fossil fuel dependency and embracing alternative energy. Funny, informational, maybe even motivational and enlightening for some.