LOW COST LIVING
Live better, spend less
Right Way, 223 pp, £5.99
ISBN: 978-0716022114
My granny would have liked this book. Mind you, she would not have liked me to buy it. “You didn’t want to spend your money on a book, you could have asked me. Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves. Many a mickle makes a muckle”.
Granny laid down the principles, but John Harrison has filled in the details, and anyone who is serious about not tearing the planet to shreds in a frenzy of consumerist mania should buy this book. Borrowing it is not good enough, as it is a reference manual, and I have already used it to get advice on sterilising jars for my blackcurrant jam.
You would expect the book to start on energy conservation, but John is big on food. He has some excellent tips on getting real value from supermarkets, snapping up the stock that is about to go out of date. Useful tips like go shopping on Tuesday if you can.
He covers growing, cooking (including recipes), storing, baking, keeping chickens and bees. He even teaches us how to make our own butter, which might seem a bit over the top until you realise he gets his basic ingredient from the supermarket (see above) for 5p.
In the energy chapter I was familiar with most of his advice, until I came to the dishwasher. Used correctly, the dishwasher uses less energy than hand washing, he says. Well, maybe, if the water in the sink is not solar heated, but surely only a Tory uses fossil fuels to heat his water in this day and age?
He has interesting alternatives for cleaning materials. The stuff on transport is fairly obvious – the book is a brief manual, so if you want the low down statistics, look elsewhere.
I thought I had a fairly green lifestyle until I read this book. Looking into the life of a couple who really are into low cost living makes me realise how far I have to go, and has revived the unsung joy of being green – mindfulness. Instead of going through our humdrum lives in a semi-comatose state of habit, the low cost living aficionado is looking at every one of her actions, thinking, “How can I do this better?” not in a moralistic, but in an inventive, curious way. This book sets the standard. Get one, and make Granny happy.
Richard Lawson
Kate
Lock
Confessions of an Eco-shopper:
The True Story of One Woman’s Mission to Go Green
Hodder, 272 pp, £8.99
ISBN: 978-0340954676
This book is written in the style of a series of experiments with all things eco. Lock loves trying things out, often in an entertaining (although not terribly scientific) way – for example, she tests whether organic wine gives you a hangover by getting a bunch of students drunk.
Lock provides copious exciting adventures into what you can do to embrace the green scene. This includes everything from making your own face cream to getting dirty with some worms. Her enthusiasm for ‘eco-life’ exudes through the pages, such as using the weird vegetables in your veg box, or learning how to make good quality compost draw you in whatever your prior knowledge.
Because this book came out of a column she wrote for her local paper in York there is a definite flavour of the city throughout the book as she draws local people into her experiments. This book contains a fair breadth of stuff and would be a good Christmas present for friends and relatives who know a little about becoming a green citizen but haven’t embraced a greener approach yet. Two of my friends have already rushed off with the book to try making some of the recipes for face products she provides.
Those areas that she is weak on, such as transport, could be effectively covered in a sequel. Failing that, buy this book along with Leo Hickman’s ‘A Life Stripped Bare’ which is in a similar vein and complements Lock’s book perfectly.
Alyson Duckmanton
Confessions of an Eco-shopper:
The True Story of One Woman’s Mission to Go Green
Hodder, 272 pp, £8.99
ISBN: 978-0340954676
This book is written in the style of a series of experiments with all things eco. Lock loves trying things out, often in an entertaining (although not terribly scientific) way – for example, she tests whether organic wine gives you a hangover by getting a bunch of students drunk.
Lock provides copious exciting adventures into what you can do to embrace the green scene. This includes everything from making your own face cream to getting dirty with some worms. Her enthusiasm for ‘eco-life’ exudes through the pages, such as using the weird vegetables in your veg box, or learning how to make good quality compost draw you in whatever your prior knowledge.
Because this book came out of a column she wrote for her local paper in York there is a definite flavour of the city throughout the book as she draws local people into her experiments. This book contains a fair breadth of stuff and would be a good Christmas present for friends and relatives who know a little about becoming a green citizen but haven’t embraced a greener approach yet. Two of my friends have already rushed off with the book to try making some of the recipes for face products she provides.
Those areas that she is weak on, such as transport, could be effectively covered in a sequel. Failing that, buy this book along with Leo Hickman’s ‘A Life Stripped Bare’ which is in a similar vein and complements Lock’s book perfectly.
Alyson Duckmanton
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