Friday, April 08, 2011

The Moneyless Man - Mark Boyle

The Moneyless Man - Mark Boyle (2010) Mark is an Irishman living in Bristol, who decides to spend a year without any money, living in a trailer with a composting toilet through the coldest winter in the UK. Scavenging food and using his bicycle as his main form of transport, he spends the year trying to keep his eco footprint small. All in all though, I found it a bit preachy, especially when he gets to mentioning tampons. We all have the green guilt, and most of us try in some way or another to limit our impact on the world. I don't have a car and mainly use public transport and walk, I try not to waste food and recycle our rubbish, but I like having a shower, toilet and electric blanket. Ideally of course it would be nice to be more sustainable, to have a more country home with a large pantry, but for me I can't see that happening for some time. So - part of me enjoyed the ideals of this book, I did find myself wanting to stop reading as I found the author having a bit of an attitude and talking down to his audience, and for that I can only offer it a 2/5. One can only imagine that he has returned to his 3 ply, and whiskey.

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