"Sleeping Naked is Green" by Vanessa Farquharson

It's a book. It's a blog. It's a blog that became a book.

I was browsing in the biography and memoir section at Goodwill and found this book. I have to be honest, I was first attracted because of its title Sleeping Naked is Green. Next came the intriguing cover with bare legs rising from a green field. The back cover let me know that the author, Vanessa Farquharson, was Canadian. And the clincher was that this book started out as a blog. I thought maybe it could give me some hints about making my off the grid blog into a book.

Vanessa Farquharson was a journalist with the National Post focusing on arts and film. In 2007, she believed that it was time that people needed to stop "talking so much" and start "doing something - anything." And that is what she did. Beginning on March 1, 2007, and for the next 366 days (it was a leap year), she began implementing one green solution a day to make her life and the environment better.

The book is organized by month, each chapter beginning with a list of the day-by-day things she did to green her life. Some were simple, switching to recycled paper towels. Some more difficult, giving up her refrigerator.

When I started the book I wasn't sure it would hold my interest, but Vanessa has an engaging writing style. The descriptions she included for selected green solutions were informative and often funny. Vanessa stuck it out for the full year. Some of the solutions didn't become a permanent part of her life (not surprising), but many of the changes stuck and made her an overall greener person. In fact, Vanessa is now Communications Manager for TerraCycle, an international upcycling and recycling company.

My original goal of getting inspired to organize my blog into a book wasn't met. My topic of off-the-grid living doesn't really fit this format. But my goal of reading an enjoyable book was. -- Margy