Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America

A legitimate idea--but the unabridged version goes on and on and on ... and on. It is repetitive, repetitive, and more repetitive. In other cases the author's stores of his meetings with famous and powerful world figures would be off-putting, but at least that broke up the same idea presented again, and again, and again, and again--and yet again!

The topic was interesting, but the reading was so slow I couldn't stand it, and I had to send it back and cancel the second set of disks. Very frustrating! It sounded like someone reading to kindergartners, although they would have been even more bored. I need something to keep me awake and interested on long drives, not something that sounds like bedtime stories. Does anyone know why some audiobooks are read so slowly? If it had been read at a normal rate of speed, I think they could have used half the disks. Producing this one at 1 and a half speed, or whatever they use for radio broadcasts, would have been even better.

My D goes to Williams so I'm inclined to give you credibility. Both of my kids are English majors and love to read great writing, which you always provide. However, in the audio disk version, I was unable to listen to all of your disks on this subject. I don't have ADD, but this audio book lost me. Your conclusions are sound, but I was bored half way through. Look forward to meeting you in person and we can have an intelligent conversation. RickB

This book is a bit repetitive and preachy. Still, it causes you to think and may help to set a tone for government action on important energy issues.

Not a quick read to take to the beach on a summer afternoon, but the topic and ideas presented are too important to ignore. People sometimes quickly dismiss books about environmental issues, assuming it will lead to the condemning of science, technology, and societal advances, instead proposing a regression toward a simpler 1800's style lifestyle. What makes the book different to me is that Friedman has researched and described solutions which exist, have been proven, make both environmental as well as economic sense. In 2008, the U.S. has faced significant downturns in many areas. Perhaps the culmination of all these problems arising at the same time is that the public will recognize the seriousness of our economic downturn, read this book, and clamor for solutions. Hopefully, elected officials will also read this book, think Nationally vs. Regionally, and lead vs. react to crises in energy and environmental areas, and enact solutions similar to those offered in Friedman's book

I am admittedly a huge fan of Friedman's. I read his column weekly in the NY Times, & I've read every one of his books. His last book is on my Top 5 list of books that I recommend to people. This book didn't disappoint either. It sets out to prove how tightly integrated the three topics are today - Hot (global warming / climate change), Flat (globalization), and Crowded (the rising global population). Friedman lays out exhaustive details on how this is a global problem, & the US's role in it. He also describes in exhaustive detail the steps he thinks the US, as well as the rest of the world needs to take to slow down / halt the catastrophic damage that we are doing to our planet, making ourselves next on the endangered species list. He goes into detail how the US needs to play a MAJOR role in TheGreen Revolution, and how ET (Energy Technology) is to the 21st Century as IT was to the latter half of the 20th. This book is a MUST READ!