Just finished this book.

First, let me say it is a strangely structured book, jumping all over the country to visit and discuss off-gridders in many locations. Perhaps this would have made more sense in the form a documentary film, but it doesn't quite work in this format.

That being said, it is a fun and interesting read. I enjoyed it. The author writes with with and honesty, and he has a genuine interest in off-grid living. He visits off-gridders of many varieties, examines their methods and motivations, and gives each a fair shake.

So if you are interested in this kind of thing, I do recommend this book. I respectfully disagree with those who found the author mean-spirited. He does give his opinions, and doesn't hold anything back, but I didn't get the feeling he had a ax to grind with anyone. He was probably harshest with the "inventor" of the Earthship, but from what I gather that guy probably deserves it.
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Not a great book, but an interesting cross-view of the current social environment of 'living off the grid' through a journalist's road trip. ( )

We’ve all had the experience of talking to someone who seems intelligent and interesting and then they randomly blurt strange and/or offensive comments that put you off. That’s pretty much the experience of reading this book.

As others have said, this is a fairly interesting book with some good information and insight, but it’s nearly overpowered by the author’s arrogant, confusing, and just plain weird comments that seem to come out of left field.

It has other flaws as well; like a lot of books these days it’s more like a long magazine article than a book. It’s full of passages like "I went to see X but he wasn’t home". OK, so why are you telling me that, and why didn’t you go back? A lot of it just seems a little half assed like that. He’s much more interested in getting to his next rant than telling the stories that are supposed to be the subject of the book. He starts a section telling us about someone and then just sort of abandons it without telling us why that person is significant. He leaves out a lot of information that I wanted to know, buy gives all kinds of completely useless and irrelevant facts, like telling the ages of and names of all the children of a woman he’s profiling, as well as the names and locations of their schools. Just in case I wanted to stalk them?

As someone else said, it just made me want to read a better book on the subject. ( )

Just finished this book.First, let me say it is a strangely structured book, jumping all over the country to visit and discuss off-gridders in many locations. Perhaps this would have made more sense in the form a documentary film, but it doesn't quite work in this format. That being said, it is a fun and interesting read. I enjoyed it. The author writes with with and honesty, and he has a genuine interest in off-grid living. He visits off-gridders of many varieties, examines their methods and motivations, and gives each a fair shake. So if you are interested in this kind of thing, I do recommend this book. I respectfully disagree with those who found the author mean-spirited. He does give his opinions, and doesn't hold anything back, but I didn't get the feeling he had a ax to grind with anyone. He was probably harshest with the "inventor" of the Earthship, but from what I gather that guy probably deserves it. ( )

I was just about to say exactly what schatzi said. I was interested in hearing the stories of all the different variety of off-gridders, but Rosen spoiled the trip for me. He had something off-color or nasty to say about almost all of the people he met. He was unable to give any helpful information about their set-ups; his descriptions were vague or non-existant. He focused on politics and his personal impressions. Since he is not a nice person, I was not at all interested in his opinions of people.
Too bad, this could have been a useful addition, as he identified the various reasons and styles for off-grid living.
One inadvertently amusing quote - He's talking about the Yogic community of Ananda Village - "These days the saffron robes have been replaced with Birkenstocks..." Try visualizing that.