Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Free eBooks, great Eco Site

I just found a bookstore site for green living literature (and curriculum as well); I planned to mention here on my blog two of the books I liked, then found that they might give me credit for doing so! How perfect! The site is: EcoBrain.com
First, here's the paragraph they offer as a guideline:

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I found this great online bookstore, focused on green living and wanted to share it with you. Right now, if you sign up for a free account, you'll get $5 in site credit, enough to get a book for free. Here is some more information about EcoBrain:

EcoBrain.com is the only online eBook store focused on the environment and environmentally friendly living. Sign up for a free account now and get a $5 account credit. (Many of EcoBrain books are $5 or less, so this is a great way to get a free book and try out EcoBrain.com with no obligation.) EcoBrain.com offers thousands of titles from top publishers about sustainable living, home and garden, green living, vegetarian cooking, green building and more. EcoBrain even has a great selection of elementary, middle school and academic environmental science material. And, because eBooks don't use paper and ink to produce, or fuel to deliver, you'll be saving yourself money, and making an eco-friendly decision too!

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Now for the books I wanted to mention:

1. Electric Water: The Emerging Revolution in Water and Energy. This book is by a guy who actually made a plan and proposed it to Congress for funding, which he didn't get, and is still working on not just slowing or stopping, but reversing damage to the planet. I read the sample preview, it was quite interesting.

2. Chasing The Sun: Solar Adventures Around The World. This one is by someone who has been involved in (pioneered it even?) providing access to solar power in third world countries that had no real power before.

I downloaded a free one as well, it's great from what I've read so far. This one is called Extreme Kids, it's full of ideas for getting involved in "extreme" outdoor adventures with your children. It's not all truly extreme, the first example is the author snow-caving with his 5-yr-old son. They built a shelter in the snow and slept overnight in it. For a little boy, that's extreme, for some of us too! Tame-to-wild ideas, and the download is free right now.

My only concern with e-books is that they're only truly eco-friendly if you don't print them out. I don't like reading at the computer, it's very uncomfortable. Guess I'd better get used to it though, a free book of over 200 pages (two, another one I was going to buy turned out to be free also!) from an eco-friendly site means I should do my part.