PERMACULTURE BOOK REVIEWS
All permaculture design courses are dense with information and Daruma is no exception. In almost any class session, as many as a dozen or more reference and supplemental reading books are introduced or discussed, almost all of which are in the extensive permaculture and ecological design library on site. However, this creates quite a problem-is-the solution situation. By the second or third day, PDC students often have a “to read” list that would take the average reader a year to complete! There is never enough time during the PDC to read all of the core essential useful permaculture and ecological design reference material.
However, since there are opportunities for a little quiet reading especially in the evenings when there are not extra class sessions or outings, we introduced ‘book reviews’ into our PDC more than 10 years ago and they are always popular as well as a benefit for everyone to get a good ‘second opinion’ on some of our recommendations. Our PDC instruction team identifies books well suited for the individual students’ interests and background and they ‘rapid assess’ and prepare and share a short review. Some enjoy the book they were provided so much that they prepare more detailed presentations, and we share all the reviews as part of the student resource files at the end of the course.
In addition to the many places to get reviews of books online, these reviews by friends and colleagues are possibly more personal. And certainly, years down the road when discovering the review you prepared or that one of your PDC classmates prepared and shared will bring back great memories of that special camaraderie that develops in a PDC. Here are some examples of books reviewed in recent Daruma Eco-farm PDC’s:
Ecological and General Systems An Introduction to Systems Ecology
Ecological and General Systems — An Introduction to Systems Ecology by Howard T. Odum, a permaculture book review by Miguel Pereira.
The Transition Handbook
The Transition Handbook is about solutions. Solutions to a world in which oil is becoming scarcer, more expensive, and harder to find & extract. Community driven & created ‘Energy Descent Action Plans’ are the desired outputs.
See our Library Thing listing below for an up to date listing of books we have currently scanned in to our Library Thing account. You can view our entire catalogue here at LibraryThing.
