Farewell, My Subaru

An Epic Adventure in Local Living

By: Doug Fine

Narrated by: Doug Fine

Length: 4 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

Informative, lively, and compulsively listenable, Doug Fine's humorous and topical work chronicles his year embracing an environmentally friendly lifestyle.

Vowing to grow all his own food, harness the sun's power for his electrical needs, and consume as little fossil fuel as necessary, Fine faces surprising obstacles at every turn as he discovers that going green is easier said than done.

©2008 Doug Fine (P)2008 Recorded Books

Encouraging

Nice light, funny reality check on getting off the grid.

Loved it

If you could sum up Farewell, My Subaru in three words, what would they be?

Fossil Fuel Free!

What did you like best about this story?

I believe this book is great for anyone who is taking a carbon neutrality journey and have been recommending it to my co-workers. I loved the humor and the experience of the journey. For those who are skeptical, it might not be a great first book to recommend as those who are skeptical need to first learn the reasons why it is important to live a life that is fossil fuel free. Going green and becoming fossil fuel free is not always easy but it can be a wonderful experience as you look back. This book helped inspire me and my fiance to also attempt to be fossil fuel free which is an endeavor. In fact, my fiance and I are moving to the community where I work and I'm only 400 feet away. Our goal is to reduce our cars to one and purchase a Chevy Volt so we can learn to become more carbon netural. Our location is in the heart of the community so we have access to just about everything we need within walking distance. My fiance is desperately searching for a local job as well so we can reduce our carbon emissions even more. I can and do listen to this book over and over again because of all the tips I pick up and just the humor of it all. Great book for those who have chosen to live a reduced carbon life. Meanwhile, the Oberlin Project is trying to achieve the goal of carbon neturality for the entire community by 2050 and supports of such efforts should take the opportunity to listen or read this book.

What does Doug Fine bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I loved Doug's struggle with weening his self off WalMart and trying to figure out if organic food stores like Trader Joe's are part of a fossil fuel free life. These are the same things my fiance and I struggle with too!

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

His determination to keep moving forward with his goals no matter how frustrating it was.

Loved it!

Funny, interesting & important book about a regular guy that struggles to get off the grid, off oil and eat locally.

You should hop on youtube and search 'farewell my subaru' to watch the 'trailer' for his book.

My own efforts have been to drive a VW that runs on bio-diesel and switch to wind power.

Farewell My Subaru

This book made me feel so happy that people are out there and trying new things and that people are aware of our planet--of society of trying to do the right thing. Everyone has a different way of preserving our Earth. I loved listening to this and I hope more people can do actions like this. yes it's obvious that this is a really young person writing but I loved his enthusiasm and his humour and am looking forward to seeing what he's doing these days.

Determination and Passion

Doug Fine decides to raise as much of his own food as possible on a piece of desert property in New Mexico, USA.

Added to that challenge he also wants to do it as carbon neutral as possible using wind, solar and biofuels.

The thing is he is a reporter from the city and has a lot to learn about raising goats, chickens, and a desert garden.

Fortunate for him he had a determination to match the challenges. And it didn’t hurt that he falls in love with someone willing to get dirty in the prickly garden with him.

The last of the book is full of ideas for moving your community toward more locally grown produce and energy.

Boring

I grew up in the country so this may explain why I found this account so boring. Yes it's tricky to raise cattle and grow your own stuff, that's why we have supermarkets! The writing style is mediocre at best. The self-hating cultural references of the author are completely alien to me, yet he doesn't take the time to explain his own perspective at all, which could have made the book more enjoyable.