What I've Been Reading
Every so often, I write a post about the books I've been reading lately. Here are the two I've finished most recently.
Garbology
I mentioned recently that I read Garbology, a new book about America's trash problem (We Americans are on track to throw away 102 tons of garbage per person over our lifetimes!). Laura Vanderkam thought I'd enjoy reading it, and she was so right.
Garbology talks about the history of trash disposal in America, a topic I knew very little about before, and which I found fascinating.
And the chapter that talks about the development of the consumer culture we currently live in was both fascinating and disturbing. Here's a quote from J. Gordon Lippincott, a pioneer in marketing and corporate branding said in 1947:
"Our willingness to part with something before it is completely worn out is a phenomenon noticeable in no other society in history...it is soundly based on our economy of abundance. It must be further nurtured even though it runs contrary to one of the oldest inbred laws of humanity, the law of thrift."
AAAAAAH!
Unfortunately, Lippincott and his marketing colleagues have been largely successful in nurturing this throwaway culture, given that Americans throw away 7.1 pounds of trash a day. We produce so much trash, it's actually our nation's largest export product.
And sadly, we're much more wasteful than people in most other countries..Americans waste 50% more than Danish citizens do and twice as much as Japanese people.
Even in cities where recycling and composting are really popular, we're still producing a whole lot of waste that needs to be dealt with, partly because when recycling is available, we feel like it gives us license to buy and dispose. And while recycling is usually better than landfilling something, the recycling process still uses a lot of energy.
Ultimately, Hume says, the solution is for us to consume less stuff than we do now. He suggests these five steps:
1. Refuse (things like catalogs, over-packaged produce, and promotional products)
2. Buy used and refurbished (this keeps resources out of the waste stream and lowers demand for new products)
3. Stop buying bottled water (a hearty amen from me!)
4. Don't use plastic grocery bags.
5. Buy wisely and buy less (this is the heirloom concept I blogged about before...buy fewer items, but when you buy them, carefully choose things that will last a long time.)
I definitely think you should read this book...it's entertaining and educating, and I think it'll inspire you to reduce the trash footprint you leave on this earth.
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Bloom
At first glance, this seems like an odd book to review here on a blog about frugality, but since I talk a lot about contentment and finding joy, I thought you guys would like to hear about it.
I really enjoy reading Kelle Hampton's blog, Enjoying The Small Things, so when I heard she was writing a book, I put it on hold at my library right away.
Kelle's blog is full of pictures, and this book is sort of like a hardbound blog. It has a lot of words, naturally, but there are color photos all over the place, which I love (of course.) The language gets a little flowery in places, but if you read her blog, you'd probably expect that. 🙂
In the book, Kelle talks openly about her struggle to accept her daughter Nella's Down Syndrome diagnosis, but she also interweaves the story of hard times in her childhood (her parents had a tough divorce, and she spent a lot of her younger years separated from her dad.)
I've been faithfully reading Enjoying the Small Things since Nella was born, so it was really interesting to learn more about Kelle's story and also to hear more detail about the days and weeks following Nella's birth. I don't share Kelle's religious beliefs, but I am still inspired by her optimistic, joyful attitude.
People have criticized Kelle for the cheerful way she's now handling life with Down Syndrome, but I really respect her for it. There are hard challenges in life, to be sure, but getting down in the dumps about those hard things is rarely productive or helpful.
When something difficult happens to you, you can choose to make the best of it, and when you do, you and the people around you are usually better off for it. Looking for the good makes an enormous difference for me, and I think it's a large key to cheerfully living on less.
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What have you been reading lately? And have you read either of these two books? I'd love to hear your thoughts if you have!
I heard about this book on NPR (http://www.npr.org/2012/04/26/150735732/following-garbages-long-journey-around-the-earth). Glad to hear it is as fascinating to read as the interview was to hear. I'll put it on my list for the summer. Thanks!
I bought a copy of Bloom when it first arrived in my local bookstore and read it in record time. I loved every word and every photo and it has truly inspired me to try to always see the beauty, the good in everything around me. I, too, faithfully read Kelle's blog and love seeing how big Lainey and Nella are becoming.
Bloom keeps cropping up in the most wonderful places, and I'm so glad.
About her being criticized for being cheerful - seriously?
I have 3 kids. One has Down syndrome, one has autism. So I'm supposed to spend my days bitter and grumpy? Please. Life is hard for everyone. Enjoy it.
Yes, exactly. I can never understand what people who criticize cheerful people are really wanting. Honestly, what is the good of moping about? It doesn't change the hard circumstances!
Of course, even the most cheerful among us gets down sometimes, and I think that's ok. But I don't think it's ok to run about ASKING people to get down in the dumps. If someone is happy, then let them be, for heaven's sake! 🙂
I haven't read this blog or book, so understand that I'm speaking generally rather than about those situations specifically.
If a blogger puts out a blog to help people do as she does (almost always a she, eh?) - ie, advice column style - then the readers want to know if the blogger is enough like them to be a realistic role model. If she is, then maybe her solutions will work for others. But if the readers' problems include getting down in the dumps and the blogger's don't, the question arises why would her solutions work for the readers?
Now if the blog is motivational rather than advice (advocational? that should be the word but is not), always showing the positive is appropriate.
She doesn't say she writes it for that reason...she writes because she loves to write and loves to take pictures. It's really just the story of their lives, unlike my blog, which is about a particular topic with a bit of my life thrown in.
So, she writes the story of their lives from a cheerful perspective (which got derailed there for a bit when her daughter was born with DS) and people are annoyed with her, like she's doing something wrong if she's not depressed.
I also read kellys blogg... I didnt' think I would be able to get a copy from my local library. I just went and checked and they have it! I just put my hold on!!!
Yay! I hope there wasn't a long wait time for it at your branch.
Interesting! I didn't know any of that, including the stuff about her dad. I guess I need to read more closely:).
Frugality and living green intersect on so many fronts. I find that every time our family tries something new, that is considered green, it also winds up saving us some money. We're currently trying to see just how little we can add to the landfill. We're at one can per month of garbage collection, and I'm just curious to see if we can't make that any less. So, I peek into the kitchen trash (where we dump our most stuff) from time to time during the day, and fish out anything that shouldn't be in there. And our rule is that our recycling bin can't be overflowing by the end of the month. We've developed a keener eye when it comes to determining if something really is kaput.
Good book reviews, Kristen. I'll add them to my summer reading list.
My wife and I are going through our move into our new house and one thing I'm just amazed at is how much garbage we've had in the last couple weeks. Now granted, a lot of that garbage has been cardboard boxes and packing material but still!
Moving did get us to rethink a lot of things and we're planning on having a tag sale in a couple weeks to get rid of a lot of the junk we accumulated over the years. That really does little for the future but I'm hoping an incident this traumatic will cause my wife and I to think twice the next time we buy something.
I've been all over the place with my book choices lately. I just got a library card, finally, and currently in my stack I have books on the history of Halloween and the Spiritualism movements (I love cultural histories on most every subject), a history on the kosher food movement, and a book on the history of the color indigo.
Thank you so much for telling me about "Enjoying the Small Things". I read so much of her blog - it's beautiful. And I cried.
You rock.
I seriously hope that with the changes I've made in my life that I'm well under the 7.1 pounds of garbage a day. I assume that includes really large items averaged out over the year. I think a big problem, at least in the US, is that quite a bit of the garbage is just given to you for free - grocery sacks, produce bags, product packaging, etc. You can get clever and reuse some of it but at a certain point, it's just garbage. We're not going to see a big change until there is a change in packaging culture.
Just curious, as I read Kelle's blog on and off and am not sure what her religion is. What are her religious beliefs?
Well, from what I can gather, she's not really interested in the church as a whole (she had some rough years with the church there when her dad announced that he was gay, and I think the church she was going to was pretty fundamentalist and told her to shun her dad and such), and she has a somewhat nebulous view of God.
So, that's pretty different from my beliefs, but I still am inspired by the way she's living life cheerfully.
Interesting! I didn't know any of that, including the stuff about her dad. I guess I need to read more closely:).
I just read "The Elephant Whisperer" by Lawerence Anthony and Graham Spence. I have also read another book by them "Babylon's Ark". I read and article about Lawerence Anthony passing away and that the elephants from the reservehe ran came to mourn his death within hours of his passing. It amazed me that two herds of elephants somehow both knew from seperate parts of the reserve they live on made their way to his home to pay their respect. The Elephant Whisperer is about his story with the elephants and his bond with them. AMAZING. Then Babaylon's Ark is about his time during the war saving the zoo animals in Baghdad. Both books made me think and gave me insight into respecting life and and living things for sure. Definitely lines up with the conservation efforts of the Garbology book you shared.
Garbology is going on my list, the next book I plan to read is 'Enjoy Every Sandwich', so it'll have to wait a little while - but I'll get round to it!
Just finished Linchpin by Seth Godin... apart from that the majority of my reading consists of 'Why Dinosaurs love underpants' and other titles along a similar vein!
I think you'll love it, Jo!
Did you like Linchpin?
Being completely honest I've had the book a while. I started it and then put it down - I didn't get it at all.
Now for the bit that will make me sound like an idiot (I'm not one for self-inflating my ego - I'm rather more along the self-depreciating route! 🙂 that may be my British ancestry as I also like to talk about the weather a lot) - I didn't get it because I couldn't understand what was so 'new or unique' about what he was saying. The stuff that was suggested - I do as a matter of course, I don't think about it really. Things like working without payment or desire for extra compensation, giving gifts, spreading ideas (even when not asked - which could be quite irritating I would imagine!) etc... this is how I tend to approach life.
I picked it back up a couple of weeks ago and got interested, because, okay there's nothing in there I don't really know/do, but in a world where it's easy to become cynical it was refreshing to read that my approach is okay. In fact, more than okay by him - it gave me fresh hope that I'm not a bit odd because I don't mind doing stuff for others (I even enjoy it). Some days you do wonder!
p.s - my favourite book in this genre of all time is - "The Magic Of Thinking Big" by David J Schwartz (from the 70's). I love it so much that I now randomly gift it to young people (predicted future "linchpins") that I feel could benefit from it - see I told you I have a habit of spreading ideas whether welcomed or not! I'm rather irritating...I know...
Do you ever read books just for fun, not to learn anything from it? You know, like book club books or beach books? Any special ones you liked?
I think I'm an odd duck or something, because I think these kinds of books ARE fun! 🙂 I could hardly put Garbology down, and reading Kelle's book was also very enjoyable.
I do read fiction with the kids, but not so much on my own. I did more when I was a teenager and had more disposable time on my hands.
This may be another interesting reading path for you to explore a bit, both the article and the book from which it is drawn: http://chronicle.com/article/In-Praise-of-Leisure/132251/?cid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en
I too have followed her blog and have no idea what religion she follows. I wonder why it matters, or why you felt it worth mentioning? You didn't say it about the author of the first book? No big deal, just curious as to why!
Well, I think I thought about it because my motivation for finding the good and being content is different than her motivations for finding the good and being content. Mine are all grounded in my beliefs about God and His plans and love for me.
Also, Kelle's book talked a fair amount about her beliefs about God and the church and such, whereas Humes' book doesn't talk about that sort of thing. If Humes had couched his book in talk about how the earth is our mother or something like that, I'd have been likely to mention something about how I don't share his belief system but am still freshly inspired to produce less trash.
I don't know if that makes sense or not!
Definitely makes sense! Thanks for expounding on it!
I am a biologist and am currently reading "Brid Sense" which is a book that uses the 5 senses to explain how birds live their lives. It's great!
I also am a big non-fiction reader and am currently reading a mystery novel. Nothing special, just a fun escape from the day 🙂
I am about to get Scott Jurek's "Eat and Run" book about how he became vegan and sustained his ultrarunner lifestyle. Very intrigued!
You might like an excellent blog called Zero Waste Home by Bea Johnson. Her family lives in a beautiful Mill Valley, California home and manages to produce only a tiny handful of garbage per year. It's well-written and very inspiring. You can click on the top 10 simple things to do for waste reduction. Along with yours, I read this blog regularly!
Oh, she was profiled in Garbology! I'd read her blog here and there before...she seems to post pretty intermittently.
"It must be further nurtured even though it runs contrary to one of the oldest inbred laws of humanity, the law of thrift."
Blanket statements like that, embodying a Ye Olde mentality and without references, get my contrarian research juices running. So: from what I've read, and heard from modern-tribe anthropologists, this may not be true - sometimes yes, sometimes no. For example, Aborigine towns in Australia are often just as messy as white neighborhoods that are equally poor. If you closely observe tribes that use natural projects they drop a great deal of stuff on the ground when they're done, as opposed to putting the trash into a pile or out of their living areas. This isn't apparent to the outside untrained eye becuase it just looks like leaves and twigs or whatever.
OTOH we have very little clothing from most periods in history because cloth and clothing was so god-awfully resource intensive to make. Most items were made in a way that used up all the fabric and every last scrap and rag was utilized in some fashion or another.
I don't know if what the owner of the quote said was true historically, but what I was distressed about was the idea that we should encourage this sort of behavior. And it's depressing that marketers have been so successful at getting us to buy into the throw-away mentality.
Great book reviews, both books sound very interesting, thanks for sharing!
Yesterday, I was digging your blog and found the post about the 'Blogs-you-read'.. I found Kelle's blog and next moment, I was reading her blog about how she has accepted Nella's medical situation. I would love to buy and read this book , if it is available in India..
Perfect timing! Just compiling my summer reading list now C:
I read Kelle's book last month and I am also the mother of a special needs child, so I came at it from a different perspective from most readers. My son's 2 neurological disorders (Tourette Syndrome and Sensory Processing Disorder) were not diagnosed until he was 6 and 9, respectively, so we didn't have that overwhelming moment of realization that our child had disabilities, as Kelle did. We came to the realization gradually, after years of heartache, and it's still devastating that way, but probably easier to handle. Who knows. Ever special needs parent has their own experience of the journey. I appreciated Kelle's description of how overwhelming it was to her in the beginning, but what didn't ring true to me was how quickly she made the turnaround to more of an "everything's all peachy keen" mentality. I'm glad that she is a naturally happy person and has a "can-do" attitude about it. I know her daughter will bring her unimaginable joy in the coming years. But there are difficulties, too. It's often a kind of "two steps forward, five steps back" situation. In my life, dealing with behavioral issues/bullies/stares from people on the street/lack of support from family and friends has been a long, tiring slog. Things are way better than they were when he was younger, but we still have moments when all I can do is pray to get past them and know that the next day will be better. I worry so much about how he will navigate the world on his own when he's an adult and wonder if I'll ever have my "normal" life back. Not that I want to go back to that easy life before him. I'm very blessed to be the mom of this particular child, because I know I can help him and understand him better than anyone else. We homeschool and live a much simpler life, on one income, so that our son can have the best possible life. The lack of understanding from my own family has been awful and has made things way worse than they needed to be. Kelle is lucky to have so much support from her family, friends, and even complete strangers who read her blog. As you read her book, just remember this: be compassionate to children who are "different" and their parents when you see them in a store or at the park. Don't judge how the child behaves and assume that a kid having a "tantrum" is just "spoiled". If a child in your family is diagnosed with a disability, educate yourself as much as possible. Respect the parent's wishes as to how the child will be raised. Simply love the child for who he/she is and never let them feel that they are not good enough. I hope Kelle's book is read by a lot of people who have no experience with special needs children and that it opens their eyes to these amazing kids and what they can do in the world.
Lilypad,
My son attends karate with a young man with ADD/ADHD and verbal/twitching Tourettes. I have watched him grow from a young ten year old to an amazing 17 year old black belt who drives himself to class 5 days a week. For this young man, his symptons seem to have gone away (outgrown some of them?) Anyway, karate and the discipline that goes with it really seems to have helped. Best wishes with you son.
Hi Susan, thanks for your comment. We don't know any older kids with TS so I haven't seen that kind of transformation first hand. I have read that some kids with TS grow out of their symptoms for the most part, or at least they abate enough that they can be more easily repressed or covered up while in public. My son did take tae kwon do for 9 months last year and he really enjoyed it. He's not willing to put in the hours this year but is open to trying it again in the future. I will say that the "normal" 😉 teenagers I saw at his dojo were awesome, so dedicated and actually pleasant to be around. They seemed to enjoy mentoring the younger kids. I can definitely see my son taking on that sort of role in the future. Thanks for your kindness. Lilypad