The definitive 'beginners guide' to peak oil. A highly readable and accessible treatment of the subject. The obligatory 'solutions' chapter at the end of the book is pretty fluffy though; you can probably afford to just skim over it. ( )

Thorough discussion of everything from ecology to human history to the automobile to the roles of oil to ways to evaluate the value and efficiency of various forms of energy. It's fascinating and very engaging. I'd recommend it to anyone living in an industrial society.

Heinberg presents an assessment of the status of remaining global fossil fuel supplies that will give little hope to those who believe that industrial society can gradually transition from fossil fuels over the next few decades into renewables.

He presents a bleak future for the oil age and advocates the adoption of a sustainable society, which will require a completely different worldview than the one(s) that have brought modern society to the current state of affairs. ( )

This was the first book I read on the topic of peak oil, so it was an eye-opening experience. It makes the case for peak oil to a general audience without too much technical detail and describes the likely consequences. He may be too dismissive of alternative power sources, notably solar thermal technologies, which M.K. Hubbert thought were viable in principle even in the 1960's, but at this point we are a long way from making that a reality. ( )

This is the best general introduction to the subject of "peak oil" and one of the first to break this subject to a general audience. Readers of TheOilDrum.com won't find anything in this they don't already know, but for newbies it's great. ( )