Ed Begley, Jr.

Ed Begley, Jr. has been living eco-consciously since the 1970s. In this book, he brings lots of ideas and suggestions at various levels (marked by images for cost) to help other people try some of the green things he already does. Chapters include Home, Transportation, Recycling, Energy, In the Gardens and Kitchen, and Clothing and Hair and Skin Care.

I thought this was really good. Even with all the things I have read and already do, I still learned other things. I have just purchased my show more first home, so there are some ideas that I might be able to use there. This is one book that is probably worth buying so that you can look back on it later (I got this one from the library). There was a running line at the bottom of each page that took the ideas from that page and made it into one sentence. There were also little anecdotes by Ed's wife, who was leery of many of Ed's ideas at first, and had to be convinced of some things; she is quite conscious of style and aesthetics, so it was sometimes harder to get her on board. I think her comments are helpful for some people who are reluctant to try some of these things. show less

I loved Ed Begley Jr.'s television show about his lifestyle and have always liked him as an actor. If he had been the only contributor to this book, I might have rated it higher. Unfortunately, someone felt the need to include his wife's reflection on their lifestyle, perhaps to appeal to the ladies? She contributes such insight as "With what we save on the electric bill, I get to buy more shoes!" (p. 24) and a random rant on people who paint their homes canary yellow. The editors helpfully show more marked her passages in green, to make them easier to skip, but since I'm one of those people who can't help but read words in front of me, her words got in my brain anyway. I stopped reading in the middle of the chapter about alternative transportation, when she rambles on about the one time she rode the bus (it was horrible! She was wearing a skirt! And heels! Clearly Ed has taken his lifestyle too far.) I would have enjoyed this book much more without her input. show less

Enjoyable read from actor/activist Ed Begley Jr. He was one of the first environmentalists before it was fashionable - having an electric car in the 1970's. He met/knew/worked with a lot of folks from CIndy Williams, Jack Nicholson, and Marlon Brando and reading the stories was extremely interesting. Sorry to read he has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and wish him the best.

I'm sure there is a lot of good information in this book, but I found the style too rambling and verbose. In writing, there's no reason to start a sentence with the verbal tic "You know," (and this is not a one-time occurrence), and switching from some text in green-on-white, to other text brown-on-white and still other white-on-brown to represent three voices just gets confusing It is also annoying, since green-on-white is more than a bit clueless: "When it comes to plastic, Ed knows more show more than anybody... I think you can only put no. 1 and 2 plastic in the [blue] bins. I think no. 5 is not good, or maybe it's 6. I can't remember." Must... control... fist... of... death... show less