ewee (04/26): Collapse by Jared Diamond

Phew. This one took longer than the 575 pages should have. When I started, I was on target for this book challenge, and now I've got some catching up to do. I also have overdue fines up the wazoo. Thank goodness for the library's forgiveness program*.

Ok, so truth? Save yourself the trouble, and read this or this by Diamond instead. The first offers a good summary of the entire book, the second is a related article, and neither will run up insane library fines.

Diamond makes some interesting points and parallels, showing both cultures that have survived and cultures that have failed. The breadth of his coverage is fairly impressive, and his factoids are cataloged, footnoted, and seem to be in order. He makes some good points, and some points that I don't quite buy. Unfortunately, his writing style was a bit less than gripping, and sometimes seemed to just be a laundry list of facts. The author is well-intentioned and is trying to get his message out there. (The sky is falling! The sky is falling!) The good, he's not inflamatory and just trying to get people to react. I think he's really trying to get people to think and to believe that they can create change. The bad, it's just a lot to wade through to get there.

Overall, I'd say that it's a cautiously optimistic book. We have options, and we can create positive change and save the world. And it's not exactly the message that he sent (I'm taking the liberty of spinning it as I see fit), but there's one thing we can all do to save the world. More powerful than citywide composting, more amazing than getting your mom to recycle...you can vote. On and off the ballot, you can make choices that pressure industries and leaders to change. We as mere individuals can analyze the economic link most likely to respond to public pressure, and we can apply pressure as needed. Pretty cool overall message, but available in shorter versions (as mentioned above, or try the New Yorker's review or this Salon blog).
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* Notes:

1. Oops. totally missed the cutoff by a *day.* yes, a day. but the librarians were super nice, and the fines pretty reasonable (and why am i so frightened of angering librarians? they're generally nice folks...)
2. And yes, I'm posting this on 1/5/08, but I finished it 12/10/07 (or so), so I'm backposting to keep track of my reading through the year.