Review for Go Green by Nancy Taylor

Title: Go Green - How to Build an Earth-Friendly Community
Author: Nancy Taylor
Published: Jan 2008
Other: Printed on recycled paper

The first thing that struck me about this book was that it simply looked different than most books. It had a soft back, but was made completely out of matte (not shiny) recycled paper, has rounded corners and the whole book is printed with an aqua colored font. I do a large amount of my reading standing on the train and I found the book to fit easily in the palm of my hand while holding it open with the other.

The book begins with a simple call to action. You are seeing there is climate change occurring, something must be done about it. This book has some easy steps and ideas to get yourself and your community going in that direction. The author covers a variety of basic topics including saving energy, building remodeling and green buildings in general, transportation, food and water. Each chapter is a quick read at 20 pages or less. Each briefly explains the things that are targets of attention and why these behaviors are causing some issues. She then explains some easy steps and ideas to get yourself and other thinking about what can be done. The chapters then conclude with a list of action points. Some ideas are for the home while others are definitely more long term projects that take the support of a group of others in your community.

I would recommend this book to people looking to get into more green living. It is a good place to start for ideas for action, but is just an introduction. This book has the advantage of being more than a blurb from someone trying to sell you their "green" item while still not jumping full into a history of garbage in the U.S., for example. After picking a topic, to really get some of these projects going I'd do more research.