“Living Like Ed”

July 20, 2008 at 4:10 am | Posted in Nonfiction | 1 Comment

Living Like Ed is a green living guide written by Ed Begley, Jr.  I confess that I’d never heard of him before, and all I know about his Hollywood career at this point is that he has a TV show on the same topic as this book.  (I don’t have a TV, so I’m out of the loop on most of this stuff).  I’ve been doing my best at green living for most of my life, so I was curious to see how this book chalked up compared to what I’m doing already.  I was surprised to find that I actually learned a few things.  I even got a few laughs, as Begley’s wife, Rachelle Carson-Begley, pops in with humorous anecdotes about living with the guy.

This is a really excellent guide for beginners.  For instance, there is a section explaining what sorts of household waste can be recycled and how to do it.  The practices are aimed at the average suburbanite.  There are no arcane rituals, like reusing baggies and tinfoil or making shoes out of old tires.  These are all things the majority of people can actually see themselves doing, such as using rechargeable batteries and waiting until 8 PM to run the dishwasher.  (It turns out that using a dishwasher is actually more energy efficient than washing by hand – something I learned from this book).

I would definitely recommend Ed Begley’s book to anyone who would like to do more for the environment but doesn’t know where to start.  It’s also worth a read for those who are already doing everything they know how to do, because we may find something we’ve missed to add to our repertoires.