Book Review: Sleeping Naked Is Green
Environmental Magazine
Sep 01, 2009
CHANGE FOR THE GREENER
Vanessa Farquharson, author of Sleeping Naked Is Green: How an Eco-Cynic Unplugged Her Fridge, Sold Her Car, and Found Love in 366 Days (Houghton Mifflin/Harcourt, $13.95), spent an entire year making one eco- friendly improvement to her life every day. The changes ranged from the big (selling her car, unplugging her fridge) to the small (giving up drinking straws, picking up litter) to the more unusual (using vinegar as a shampoo substi- tute-"I reeked like a fish-and-chips shack.") All are hilariously documented in her book, which examines the degree of difficulty involved in going green.
She admits to a certain level of snobbery towards environmentalists at the start of her adventure, but by the end of the first month, she had joined their ranks. Farquharson approached her sacrifices with humor and an open mind, and at the end retained 271 of her 366 changes. A few things were just too hard to give up (the vacuum cleaner, the dishwasher, shaving her legs), but many adjustments she found much easier to maintain. One fun tip: always order ice cream in a cone, rather than a paper cup.
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