People always are asking me why I am so smart. I say, "Gee, I guess I was born that way." This typically angers most people who didn't ask why I was really smart, but probably why I am a raving lunatic about matters that really upset me. People want to get inside my mind and see what drives it and really, the answer is closer to a desire to gain knowledge in diverse subjects... AND act on what are moral obligations! There are too many of us out there that just go with whichever way the wind blows, or less perverse, go with the flow. While I generally try to think on my own about different issues, using applicable resources to make informed decisions, I can say that these last few non-fiction books I have read have certainly struck to my core beliefs. Their message was indeed powerful: Powerful enough to get me off my busy schedule to promote and blog them. I suggest if you can read any of these, go with No. 1. It will wake you up from energy-unaware slumber, yes even you conservatives out there that think our 19th century systems can be maintained in the 21st century. Time to wake up. Seriously friends, F***ing Wake the F*** Up!
1) Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedmann
Probably the best non-fiction book that wraps up the energy-climate crisis in such a eloquent but comprehensive package that enables the reader no comfort in denying human effect on our world. Just as it points to our culpability, it provides the ideas for solutions; something that is heard few and far between with our political figures. While Al Gore's An Incovenient Truth certainly revved up the political bases, and presented a scientific exposee on our carbon footprint and its implications for our future, Friedmann spoon-feeds us with logical arguments and conclusions how globalization, climate change, our (US) economy and conservation are so entangled in creating a viable future, that it would be the most foolish thing to brush off this book as political. This book challenges our current energy policies in light of such a desperate situation
2) Anti-Cancer by Dr. __
A fifteen year brain cancer survivor pieces separate accounts of cancer accounts with current research together to present an overwhelming document supporting an integrated approach to combatting cancer. Just the section on food alone is stirring, especially in his Pollanesque reference to industrial agronomics and how our food system is essentially poisoning us a plague of cancers.
3) I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell by Tucker Max
Ok. anyone who has heard of this book (or read it) knows how twisted this guy is. He has demonstrated through his (anyone who keeps having to remind his readers how true this or that story is strikes up red flags for its "non-fiction" status) stories the bigger picture of what America has become for upper-middle-class elites, unaccustomed to any responsibility, devoid of any moral obligation and seeking only to gratify personal desires. It is humorous and entertaining from his standpoint, and I can say that his stories gave me a sort of benchmark to use (don't worry, I could never stand at a quarter of his immoralities), but in the greater context it reveals about this country, it's essense is of a vile and rotting citizenry that could only export this kind of trashy 'lifestyle'. The last story in the book, is foretold throughout, however, as his situation could not be more pitiful than the two booty calls he tries to session together; one, a broken down, married stripper, the other, pregnant with what might be his kid. Good luck Tucker.
9 years ago
