Review: The Story of Stuff

As part of the Eco Libris Green Books Campaign, I agreed to review The Story of Stuff for the Bloggers Review day thinking that such a light-hearted title would result in an easy read.

Pah! The light, gentle read that I thought would be ideal to dip in and out of for those of us wanting to get a bit greener it is not! Annie Leonard has instead provided us with all the information you could want about Stuff contained within these pages.

Thoroughly researched and already considered to be an important book, The Story of Stuff explores all aspects of our daily consumption.

Annie Leonard, creator of the internet film sensation “The Story of Stuff”, viewed over 6 million times, offers an astonishing, galvanizing book that tells the story of all the ‘stuff’ we use everyday – where our bottled water, mobile phones and jeans come from, how they’re made and distributed, and where they really go when we throw them away. Our out-of-control consumption habits are killing the planet and threatening our health, but Annie provides hope that change is within reach. Like “An Inconvenient Truth and Silent Spring”, “The Story of Stuff” will be an instant classic.

And the website is great too, offering bites of the whole project that may be easier to digest, for all ages.

Ideal readers are in the Americas, I suggest – being UK based did not make this a directly relevant read however we do need to know what the world’s super powers are up to, what difference is being aimed for there – because it’s likely to have a knock-on effect for us significant, if smaller, others in Europe.

If you want to understand, to really inwardly digest what, where, why of all the stuff we get through, this book is perfect. It may be uncomfortable reading too, but only those that really want to know will get the book anyway – for more lightweights like me, the website will cover it.

And there is already a film – that came before the book, I understand.

Back to Lisbeth Salander for me…

Babs