Sleeping Naked Is Green: How an Eco-Cynic Unplugged Her Fridge, Sold Her Car, and Found Love in 366 Days [Paperback]

Vanessa Farquharson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 11, 2009

No one likes listening to smug hippies bragging about how they don't use toilet paper, or worse yet, lecturing about the evils of plastic bags and SUVs. But most of us do want to lessen our ecological footprint. With this in mind, Farquharson takes on the intense personal challenge of making one green change to her lifestyle every single day for a year to ultimately figure out what's doable and what's too hardcore.

Vanessa goes to the extremes of selling her car, unplugging the fridge, and washing her hair with vinegar, but she also does easy things like switching to an all-natural lip balm. All the while, she is forced to reflect on what it truly means to be green.

Whether confronting her environmental hypocrisy or figuring out the best place in her living room for a compost bin full of worms and rotting cabbage, Vanessa writes about her foray into the green world with self-deprecating, humorous, and accessible insight. This isn't a how-to book of tips, it's not about being eco-chic; it's an honest look at what happens when an average girl throws herself into the murkiest depths of the green movement.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Canadian journalist Farquharson takes readers on her 366-day journey to live a more environmentally conscious lifestyle, making one positive change each day. While a few changes are worthy (the author sells her car), some seem a bit bizarre (she turns off her fridge and freezer—though she doesn't divulge exactly where her food is coming from after that point) and many are superficial or symbolic efforts rather than well thought out and executed commitments. In her first month, for example, she pledges to check her tire pressure and opt for natural glass cleaners, while three months later she's promising to fill the kettle with exact amount of water needed, recycle her wine corks and forgo Q-tips. While the details of her environmental crusade can weary, her griping about the efficacy of chemical-free shampoos and deodorants and the ugliness of sustainable footwear is fresh and funny; in these moments, Farquharson's appealing candor and nonsanctimonious attitude make other ecowarriors seem dour by comparison. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Toronto-based arts reporter Farquharson decides to take the green plunge and live as ecologically as possible for a year while blogging about her daily efforts and conundrums. Young and single, she worries about losing her hipster cred by acting like a hippie, so she begins her greening with “baby steps” while imagining Al Gore looking over her shoulder. Writing anecdotally with friendly candor and blithe humor, Farquharson makes each of her carefully considered attempts at reducing waste, pollution, and her carbon footprint entertaining and informative. Many of her strategies for sustainable living involve shopping, whether it’s using tote bags or selecting phosphate-free soaps and organic produce, and the very ordinariness of her choices drives home the fact that every aspect of our daily lives has an environmental impact. After she unplugs her refrigerator and gives up pajamas to cut down on laundry, Farquharson’s green year ends, and she discovers that her eco-practices have become a natural part of her life. Lively and specific, Farquharson’s forthright chronicle of the ups and downs of green awareness is the perfect book for eco-skeptics. --Donna Seaman

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1 Original edition (June 11, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0547073283
• ISBN-13: 978-0547073286
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,025,674 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Vanessa is an arts reporter for the National Post in Toronto, Canada, where she also writes a regular environment column called Sense & Sustainability. She made 366 eco-friendly changes to her life -- including unplugging her fridge, selling her car, constructing her own compost bin (with worms) and showering in the dark -- and compiled her experiences in the book Sleeping Naked is Green. Vanessa has been featured on CBC Radio, Breakfast Television, Body and Soul magazine, Intelligent Life, Martha Stewart Living Radio and more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Less than I expected June 10, 2009

By GLBT VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

The concept behind "Sleeping Naked is Green" is pretty clever; the author found one way to make her life more "green" every day for 365 days. The purpose of the book, we are told, is not to lecture the audience on the need for more eco-friendly lifestyles but rather to show how a "normal" person tries to change her life and which things worked and which were a big drag.

It's a neat idea.

The book itself is a bit disappointing, however. First of all, it consists almost entirely of blog entries that the author posted at the time. A more cohesive narrative would have been MUCH more interesting than a series of disjointed, one page blog entries.

Also, only about half of the blog entries are in the book. So, at the beginning of each "month" there is a list of what changes were made on which day. For example:

March 1: Switch to recycled paper towels
March 2: No more electric heating pad
March 3: Ban all styrofoam
March 4: Switch to an eco-friendly toothbrush
etc.

But we only see the blog entries for Days 1 and 3; we never hear about Days 2 and 4. That seems a little odd. I suppose the reasoning was that the book would have been too long if it had included all 365 entries, but that's precisely why a narrative style of writing, summarizing the changes made each month, would have been much more interesting.

As it is, this book is essentially an incomplete collection of mildly interesting daily blogs.

Definitely not a must-read.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, but ultimately pointless February 19, 2010

By D. Wiley

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book chronicles the author's year of making 366 mostly trivial changes to "green" her life. The writing is breezy and entertaining, and she is fun to spend a year with. Anyone hoping to come away with ideas for how to reduce their own impact on the planet will be disappointed. The book constantly focuses on the minutiae such as what kind of toilet paper to use and the sensational such as whether to use toilet paper at all, but completely misses the big picture such as how much long-distance travel is compatible with a lower carbon foot print lifestyle. One of the last changes she makes captures this nicely, "use bathroom before boarding plane". In the end Vanessa Farquaharson's impractical approach to environmentalism does more to set back the movement by making it seem bizarre and inconvenient such as "shower in the dark" while missing easier and more important changes everyone can make such as flying less.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Who would have thought green could be this fun? June 6, 2009

By Denise Patterson VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

To read about, that is - Vanessa certainly seems to have had her ups and downs over her year of making a new green change in her life every day. This book chronicles her 'greening' year, episode by episode. Each chapter covers a month, with a list of what changes she made that month first, and then a few select changes are highlighted with some commentary. (One of the few disappointments I had with the book was that a lot of the changes I was interested in weren't the ones chosen for commentary, alas!! But of course the book would have had to be a thousand pages long to include everything...)

Let's start with the lists at the beginning of each chapter - for one thing, if you are looking for some new ways to green up your own life, you are bound to find several things new to you here - Vanessa covers the gamut from, yes, selling her car and unplugging her fridge (which oddly enough she makes sound almost doable...) to tiny changes like 'eat ice cream only from a cone, not a cup' or 'shower in the dark' (she MUST have a window in her bathroom! I'd kill myself falling over something!!).

The commentary is great - no super-pious, greener-than-thou here! Sometimes she'll talk about some of her many misadventures along the way (worms from her compost bin on the living room floor), sometimes she'll talk about how something that sounds hard wasn't, or something that sounds easy, wasn't. Sometimes she takes herself seriously, sometimes not - which all in all, makes for a better read than a book that just takes one side or the other. It almost reads like - dare I say this for a 'green' book? - chick lit. If you enjoyed Julie and Julia, you'll enjoy Vanessa's similar tone (but not quite so many disasters!).

In keeping with the chick lit theme, yes, she does find love - I won't tell you who, but I will say I was surprised! It added a nice dimension to the litany of green episodes, gave it a 'hook'. I do wish she had spent a LITTLE more time telling us how they hooked up - one page she was beginning to think about him as a potential partner, a few pages later they are dating - aww, we missed the whole big 'he confesses his feelings' moment that any Jane Austen fan will tell you is by far the best part.

But that's a minor quibble - it is, after all, a book about how she greened her life, not a romantic diary. And BOY did she green her life - well done, Vanessa!! I got a lot of ideas for my own life (although DANG I'm jealous of the green options she has available in Canada that are simply NOT available in the Midwestern USA!), and I really enjoyed the book. If you are looking for a green read that's not oppressively heavy and guilt-inducing, and yet actually has some practical and out of the ordinary ideas, give this a read. You won't regret it.