Bought 12 Jan 2010 from a local charity shop.

I want to keep this but I'm going to send it on a bookring first, as I know quite a few people will be interested.

Hickman and his wife (well, Hickman, really, as we shall see) decide to try to live their lives more "ethically", whatever that means. They invite three environmentalists to do an audit of their lives and home, and the comments of the auditors are interspersed throughout the book, in the sections that discuss food, cars, gardening etc, which is useful. Hickman finds that getting his wife on board is harder than he thought, and eventually that they end up with different parts of life that they are happy to change.

An interesting book as they are very much a "normal" family with a terraced house and not quite enough money to always buy organic or have replacement sash windows and photovoltaic panels put in. I did feel a bit guilty reading some of it but, then again, like the Hickmans, we score major environmental brownie points by not having a car (thanks again to the people who give us lifts when we need them!!)

Matthew wants to read this when it comes back from its ring.

BookRing!

Rules:

1. Journal the book when you receive it
2. Try to read it and send it on within 1 month
3. PM the next reader and send it to them - make a release or journal entry on the book so we can all see its status
4. If you have any problems reading the book in time or getting hold of the next reader, please PM me or use the email address on my profile!

PARTICIPANTS:
Peamartian UK (anywhere)
Salvami Ireland (Europe)
Bookguide Netherlands (Europe)
Penelopewanders Switzerland (Europe)
Sarabe1 Sweden (anywhere)
Okyrhoe Greece (anywhere)<--- it's on its way here (August 2012)!
NMReader US (US)

Posting to Peamartian today. Enjoy!

Book arrived safely about a month ago, and I onoly just realised that I never journaled it when it first landed - sorry! It has now made it to the top of the pile, so you should be hearing from us again soon...

I received the book this morning. Thank you Peamartian for sending & LyzzyBee for including me x
It looks really interesting, I will read it as soon as possible.

I am so sorry this book is still with me. I will try to send this to the next reader in this week...short on cash at the moment :(

I enjoyed reading Leo's (and his family) experiences. Shopping local produces, being involved in more community activities, eat less meat but when they do, buy organic meats only, travel not by planes etc.
There are things I like to do / I can do more, but to be honest, it is hard for me to live very ethically. (how ethically can I live..? while many other people on the same planet don't seem to care about living ethically?) Hannah's opinions irritated me a little.

It was a good opportunity for me to think again how I live or how much contribution I can make to other lives /my community. Thank you LyzzyBee for including me to this ring!

Posted yesterday, Enjoy!

Discovered this on my kitchen table when we returned from a couple of days in England. I'm looking forward to reading it. Thank you for making it into a ring, LyzzyBee, and thanks to Salvami for sending it.

This was an amusing and interesting account of Leo Hickman's attempt to live more ethically, dragging his wife along behind him, not entirely convinced. Initially full of enthusiasm, they soon realise that even the most obvious things such as buying organic is going to be difficult, and buying organic is not necessarily the perfectly ethical way to live as importing organic food from distant countries has a high cost in terms of air miles and carbon footprint. I was hoping for more practical information, but this book recounts more about the decision-making process and the experience of trying to live more ecologically, sustainably and to make a difference to the world. I enjoyed the humour, for example the trials and tribulations of a worm farmer were very funny. One thing which I did learn was that if it is not possible to buy organic, the next best choice is Freetrade, as the farmers in this scheme are encouraged to use organic techniques, as well as the advantages to local economies.

Even though we already do many of the things advocated in this book, I dread to think what a sustainability auditor would make of our lifestyle, with five people addicted to computers, video games and television, and one person who clocks up major airmiles for work. Hopefully we can offset it somewhat with our allotment and one adult who cycles everywhere, as well as recycling, composting and being aware of the choices when shopping. So I'm glad I read this book, as every little of bit of inspiration is welcome.

After checkingthat PenelopeWanders still wanted to read this book, I've posted it off to Switzerland. I would have liked to deliver it personally during our summer holiday in Switzerland, but unfortunately PenelopeWanders was off on her own holiday the same week, so we couldn't meet. Sorry that it took me so long to send it on.

This book has been released as part of the following BookCrossing challenges:
- The Ultimate Challenge - read and release books, with extra points for a monthly theme
- Reduce Mount TBR (To Be Read) - read and release books on the TBR list since before June 2010. My reading goal is 75 books.
- Pages Read Challenge - read a self-set target number of pages in 2011. My goal is 25,000.

So after a rather roundabout journey, this has arrived safely here in the Alps... sorry a meet-up couldn't happen, and thanks for the nice card.
This is the third non-fiction ring to roll in - and I tend to read these more slowly, so not sure when I'll be through with this one. It's not lost though! Thanks for sending and making available.

Hmm, funny how these things run in series. I signed up for this ages ago, it seems, and likewise at some point I signed up for The Omnivore's Dilemma. That ring reached me last summer, and I enjoyed it thoroughly, purchased it for our school library, had my family read it, etc. Now this one came along... some similarities indeed. One difference is that I find Leo much harder to get along with, so to speak. (I often say I don't like reading books with main characters I don't like, because it's kind of like spending several days with someone I don't like...). While I appreciate his issues, for one thing his attitude to his wife Jane had me progressively cringing more and more. It seems he somewhat single-handedly decided to embark on an adventure that does rather turn their life style on end, and then he's chagrined when she has a moment of pause??? Anyway, when I could distance myself from his tone, I found the actual issues discussed very interesting. Having recently set up a compost bin outside our summer place (to which yes, we generally fly, as it's on an island. ..) and having had to contend with fruit flies, I appreciated his comments about his wormery... I did find myself having a think about how ethically my family lives, and while we don't pass with flying colors in all areas, we do live pretty simply on the whole. Well worth paying attention to.
I've Pmed for the next address but have yet to hear.

On its way down the mountain and over to Sweden. Thanks for making this available... happy 2012!

Arrived safe and sound. Looking forward to reading it. Seems like a book you'll be able to read in small doses - perfect for my commute to and home from work.

Sent on to the next reader