Texas Book Festival
Nov. 1st, 2009 11:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebI went to the Texas Book Festival yesterday and had I nice time.
One thing about a festival like this is that they research good books and list them together in one place (the schedule) and so it's a good place to look for recommendations. I don't really just like nonfiction books on depressing topics, but I do admit to using the "if you like this guy, you might like these other guys" features, and so that's what happened.
I got there early to wander around and get a feeling for how things were organized. The most important thing I learned was that the store set up to sell books of all the authors with the proceeds helping to finance the festival was charging full price for the books. To get the book I was thinking I might want to get would have cost me half again as much as buying it new from Amazon and quite a bit more than waiting until I can find it used.
No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process
The main author I wanted to see was Colin Beavan, No Impact Man. I got to his presentation early and had no problem getting a seat--I later met the first person who was turned away once the room got full.
First I learned the proper pronunciation of his name which is Collin Bevvin (I was guessing Collin Beevin). He didn't talk much about his personal journey, which is my favorite part of his work. He did say that eating beef is worse for the environment than transportation, which sounds unlikely, but which I've now heard from more than one source. I mean are people clear-cutting rainforests to grow grass for cattle, and do cattle really fart that much? Their solid wastes are totally awesome for the earth. I really like hamburger. I'll have to do more research.
The best thing he did was list the four things he most recommends people do to reduce their negative impact on the earth:
* stop eating beef
* drink tap water instead of bottled water; one consequence of bottled water is that it leads to increasing the number of freshwater sources that are controlled by companies instead of by the public. Also, tap water is gravity fed rather than transported in trucks.
* take an eco-sabbath - take one day of rest a week where you don't buy anything or go anywhere.
* get involved politically
Another thing he said surprised me in a good way. His main goal is to find ways for people to reduce their impact while improving their lives. He's not about self-denial. He's all about a benefit-based approach. (Of course, a lot of times the benefits might be hard to notice until you actually try the change like he did.)
He also shared a website with more information: noimpactproject.org. See ideas on how to change yourself and, because you just can't do some things by yourself, ideas on how to change the world. I am going to be checking out these resources.
Personality note: I am a little afraid to see authors in person. It's quite easy to imagine that I could like a book written by a person I don't like. Certainly I like the acting of some actors I wouldn't like. But that didn't happen in this presentation.
Mr. Beavin did dress like the "schlub" he calls himself in his book. And although he claims he likes to make trouble, when he jokingly asked his moderator whether he would like a breath mint and the moderator took that as a serious hint, it was him and not the moderator who turned bright red.
The National Parks: America's Best Idea
I went and got some lunch, which was rather mediocre, and ran into someone I knew 15 years ago in conjunction with volleyball and juggling. He is a contractor now, though not because he lost his job: he quit his last job!
Next I went to see Dayton Duncan. My favorite thing he said was that a twelve-hour film doesn't give a writer a lot of space to work with. He was able to fit more than twice as much information into the book version of his video.
He did admit that he allowed himself more rambling in the book because he knew you could flip back to the pages where he rambled off the trail to get yourself re-oriented in a way you just can't do in a movie. I suspect the writing isn't as bad as he makes it sound, though.
He didn't cover every national park and he didn't even cover the entire history of the parks, but everything that's happened since the 1980's has a parallel earlier in history that he did cover. He made this book sound interesting, and I may check it out.
Personality note: Mr. Duncan is a crybaby. He's very emotional and several times paused to pull himself back together after recalling various touching personal moments.
Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil
I also saw Peter Maass. Although he's a reporter, he calls himself a narrative writer, not political or economic.
One of the most interesting things he learned was that oil doesn't create many jobs. Once the oil wells are up, it takes very few people to man them. And so although you might expect that finding oil in your country would be good for your country, in fact the money that is made tends to be concentrated in just a few hands due to the nature of how oil is extracted. And that sudden increase in wealth makes the currency worth less and actually hurts a country's other industries. Finally, so much wealth concentrated in so few hands often inspires the owners of those hands to get very self-centered and icky.
If this bothers you, he recommends checking out Oxfam America's work on oil, gas, and mining. They are currently working to support legislation requiring oil, gas, and mining companies to disclose their revenues in developing countries--this would help the countries' residents get a better idea of how many improvements their profiting governments could afford to make for them. They are also challenging leading oil, gas, and mining companies to respect communities' right to know about the effects of mining on their neighborhoods and to decide whether to allow it.
The author said that he had a three-year contract to write this book but that it went two years past deadline. This is because he found that all the statistics and things he wanted to discuss killed the narrative and made the book boring. He found it very difficult to make the book interesting, and that's why he went over. So I'm thinking I might check out this book
Personality note: The author's first idea when he decided to write the story of oil was to get oil-related jobs. But since he is "slender," has all his teeth, and has a degree from UC Berkeley, he was laughed out of interviews. He calls this fortunate because "an oil field is no place for amateurs." It's interesting that an ex war correspondent, who also had guns pointed at his head while writing this book, feels that it would have been even more dangerous to get a job in oil fields because he actually knows how to handle having a gun aimed at his head.
After three talks, I wanted to go home and take a nap, so I did. I normally try to get all the value I can from an event, but this weekend I was really more in the mood for doing whatever made me feel good.
One thing about a festival like this is that they research good books and list them together in one place (the schedule) and so it's a good place to look for recommendations. I don't really just like nonfiction books on depressing topics, but I do admit to using the "if you like this guy, you might like these other guys" features, and so that's what happened.
I got there early to wander around and get a feeling for how things were organized. The most important thing I learned was that the store set up to sell books of all the authors with the proceeds helping to finance the festival was charging full price for the books. To get the book I was thinking I might want to get would have cost me half again as much as buying it new from Amazon and quite a bit more than waiting until I can find it used.
No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process
The main author I wanted to see was Colin Beavan, No Impact Man. I got to his presentation early and had no problem getting a seat--I later met the first person who was turned away once the room got full.
First I learned the proper pronunciation of his name which is Collin Bevvin (I was guessing Collin Beevin). He didn't talk much about his personal journey, which is my favorite part of his work. He did say that eating beef is worse for the environment than transportation, which sounds unlikely, but which I've now heard from more than one source. I mean are people clear-cutting rainforests to grow grass for cattle, and do cattle really fart that much? Their solid wastes are totally awesome for the earth. I really like hamburger. I'll have to do more research.
The best thing he did was list the four things he most recommends people do to reduce their negative impact on the earth:
* stop eating beef
* drink tap water instead of bottled water; one consequence of bottled water is that it leads to increasing the number of freshwater sources that are controlled by companies instead of by the public. Also, tap water is gravity fed rather than transported in trucks.
* take an eco-sabbath - take one day of rest a week where you don't buy anything or go anywhere.
* get involved politically
Another thing he said surprised me in a good way. His main goal is to find ways for people to reduce their impact while improving their lives. He's not about self-denial. He's all about a benefit-based approach. (Of course, a lot of times the benefits might be hard to notice until you actually try the change like he did.)
He also shared a website with more information: noimpactproject.org. See ideas on how to change yourself and, because you just can't do some things by yourself, ideas on how to change the world. I am going to be checking out these resources.
Personality note: I am a little afraid to see authors in person. It's quite easy to imagine that I could like a book written by a person I don't like. Certainly I like the acting of some actors I wouldn't like. But that didn't happen in this presentation.
Mr. Beavin did dress like the "schlub" he calls himself in his book. And although he claims he likes to make trouble, when he jokingly asked his moderator whether he would like a breath mint and the moderator took that as a serious hint, it was him and not the moderator who turned bright red.
The National Parks: America's Best Idea
I went and got some lunch, which was rather mediocre, and ran into someone I knew 15 years ago in conjunction with volleyball and juggling. He is a contractor now, though not because he lost his job: he quit his last job!
Next I went to see Dayton Duncan. My favorite thing he said was that a twelve-hour film doesn't give a writer a lot of space to work with. He was able to fit more than twice as much information into the book version of his video.
He did admit that he allowed himself more rambling in the book because he knew you could flip back to the pages where he rambled off the trail to get yourself re-oriented in a way you just can't do in a movie. I suspect the writing isn't as bad as he makes it sound, though.
He didn't cover every national park and he didn't even cover the entire history of the parks, but everything that's happened since the 1980's has a parallel earlier in history that he did cover. He made this book sound interesting, and I may check it out.
Personality note: Mr. Duncan is a crybaby. He's very emotional and several times paused to pull himself back together after recalling various touching personal moments.
Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil
I also saw Peter Maass. Although he's a reporter, he calls himself a narrative writer, not political or economic.
One of the most interesting things he learned was that oil doesn't create many jobs. Once the oil wells are up, it takes very few people to man them. And so although you might expect that finding oil in your country would be good for your country, in fact the money that is made tends to be concentrated in just a few hands due to the nature of how oil is extracted. And that sudden increase in wealth makes the currency worth less and actually hurts a country's other industries. Finally, so much wealth concentrated in so few hands often inspires the owners of those hands to get very self-centered and icky.
If this bothers you, he recommends checking out Oxfam America's work on oil, gas, and mining. They are currently working to support legislation requiring oil, gas, and mining companies to disclose their revenues in developing countries--this would help the countries' residents get a better idea of how many improvements their profiting governments could afford to make for them. They are also challenging leading oil, gas, and mining companies to respect communities' right to know about the effects of mining on their neighborhoods and to decide whether to allow it.
The author said that he had a three-year contract to write this book but that it went two years past deadline. This is because he found that all the statistics and things he wanted to discuss killed the narrative and made the book boring. He found it very difficult to make the book interesting, and that's why he went over. So I'm thinking I might check out this book
Personality note: The author's first idea when he decided to write the story of oil was to get oil-related jobs. But since he is "slender," has all his teeth, and has a degree from UC Berkeley, he was laughed out of interviews. He calls this fortunate because "an oil field is no place for amateurs." It's interesting that an ex war correspondent, who also had guns pointed at his head while writing this book, feels that it would have been even more dangerous to get a job in oil fields because he actually knows how to handle having a gun aimed at his head.
After three talks, I wanted to go home and take a nap, so I did. I normally try to get all the value I can from an event, but this weekend I was really more in the mood for doing whatever made me feel good.
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no subject
on 2009-11-02 10:01 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2009-11-03 01:00 am (UTC)