Alright world, I have been chatting with Paul and we really want to get our book review machine rolling. If we get this going really well, this could be a HUGE resource for people and eventually authors all over will will want to be on our book review list! Muahaha.

Anyway, we already have a Book Review Grid here. BUT we want more people to participate. We want every single book in this forum to have heaps of reviews on it!

SO, the way we want to do this is with our nifty acorns rating system! It's really easy, you just go to the book summary thread of the book you have read, and write the review with the very first line being "I give this book 7 out of 10 acorns." Or how ever many out of 10 you want to give it. And then write your full review. Boom. Done!

AND for your browsing pleasure, here are some of the book summaries. Now, get to givin those acorns out!

Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway
7 Ways To Think Differently by Looby Macnamara
Permaculture Kitchen by Carl Legge
Roots Demystified by Robert Kourik
Farming the Woods by Steve Gabriel and Ken Mudge
The Resilient Farm and Homestead by Ben Falk
Permaculture Design: A Step-By-Step Guide by Aranya
Edible Perennial Gardening by Anni Kelsey
Hunt Gather Grow Eat by Jason Akers
People and Permaculture by Looby Macnamara
Raising Dough by Elizabeth U
The Good Life by Helen and Scott Nearing
Restoration Agriculture by Mark Shepard
Grass-Fed Cattle by Julius Reuchel
Ancestral Plants by Arthur Haines
Edible Forest Gardens Volume 1 and 2 by Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier
The Thinking Beekeeper by Christy Hemenway
The Natural Plaster Book by Dan Chiras
Winter Harvest Cookbook by Lane Morgan
Holistic Management by Allan Savory and Jody Butterfield
The Practical Cyclist by Chip Haynes
Edible Landscaping With a Permaculture Twist by Michael Judd
Botony In a Day by Thomas J Elpel
Permaculture Designer's Manual by Bill Mollison
Compact Living by Michael Guerra
The Grazing Book by Chris Stelzer
Desert or Paradise by Sepp Holzer
The Art of Fire by Erica Wisner
Stand Up and Garden by Mary Moss-Sprague
Earth Ponds by Tim Matson
Roundwood Timber Framing by Ben Law
The Man Who Quit Money by Mark Sundeen
The Bee-Friendly Beekeeper by David Heaf
The Earth Sheltered Solar Greenhouse Book by Mike Oehler
The $50 and Up Underground House Book by Mike Oehler
Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz
The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz
The State of Art by Rob Roy
Bioshelter Market Garden by Darrell Frey
The Rebel Farmer by Sepp Holzer
The People of Cascadia by Heidi Bohan
Creating a Life Together by Diana Leafe Christian
Perennial Vegetables by Eric Toensmeier
The Beekeepers Bible by Richard A. Jones and Sharon Sweeny-Lynch
The Weekend Homesteader by Anna Hess
Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon
The Unsettling of America by Wendell Berry
Country Woodcraft by Drew Langsner
Tree Crops by J. Russell Smith
Swedish Carving Techniques by Wille Sundqvist
Fermented Vegetables by Kirsten and Christopher Shockey
Invasive Plant Medicine by Timothy Lee Scott
The Cooper and his Trade by Kenneth Kilby
A Weaver's Garden by Rita Buchanan
The Woodwright's Shop: A Practical Guide to Traditional Woodcraft by Roy Underhill
Peterson Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs of Eastern and Central US by Steven Foster and James A. Duke
The Pressed Plant by Andrea DiNoto and David Winter
Traditional Country Craftsmen by J. Geraint Jenkins
Make A Joint Stool From A Tree by By Jennie Alexander and Peter Follansbee
Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets
Fields of Farmers by Joel Salatin
Paradise Lot By Eric Toensmeier and Jonathan Bates
Cows Save The Planet By Judith D. Schwartz
Wild Edibles By Sergei Boutenko Film and e-books
Wild Edibles by Segei Boutenko
The Natural Way of Farming By Masanobu Fukuoka
Rocket Mass Heaters by Ianto Evans and Leslie Jackson
A Handbook of Native American Herbs by Alma R. Hutchens
The Foxfire Books
Weeds and What They Tell Us By Ehrenfried E. Pfeiffer
Guide to Wild Foods by Christopher Nyerges
Pests of the West by Whitney Cranshaw
Omnivores Dilemma by Michael-Pollan
The Humanure Handbook by Joseph Jenkins
Notches of all Kinds: A Book of Timber Joinery by Allan Mackie
Breathing Walls by George Swanson, Oram Miller and Wayne Federer
Rainwater Havesting for Dryland and Beyond Vols 1 and 2 by Brad Lancaster
Form and Fabric in Landscape Architecture by Catherine Dee
Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation by Tradd Cotter

Zero acorns: "throw this book on the top of the wood pile"

Ten acorns: "You can have this book when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers"

What are some other books we should set up a good, healthy thread?

Also, just so everyone knows, this list isn't every single book summary we have on permies right now. I need to complete it but am doing other things right this instant. It will be hopefully completed by tonight or tomorrow.

Please add Tree Crops! It's the only one I've read 3x & I'd give it 10 acorns.

There is a least one thread on Tree Crops but I don't think it's a book review thread.

Cj, do we have a rich book summary thread for that one?

4 threads, there was talk about a book discussion (I voted for starting in January) but I'm not sure if any of the threads give a detailed summary.

http://www.permies.com/t/37674/forest-garden/Tree-Crops-Russell-Smith-FREE
http://www.permies.com/t/38977/books/Tree-Crops-Russell-Smith
http://www.permies.com/t/12762/woodland/Tree-Crops-Permenant-Agriculture
http://www.permies.com/t/23933/trees/Tree-crops-permanent-agriculture

hi, wow great list, but it's missing completely any work from Patrick Whitefield, come on i guess we should include the earth care manual, the living landscape and how to grow a forest garden, and permaculture in a nutshell. quite a few acorns could be collected for these titles

on the earth care manual there is this thread written by the mother tree :
http://www.permies.com/t/16538/staff-reviews/Book-Review-Earth-Care-Manual#245653

even in the podcast with Maddy Harland Paul speaks about Patrick Whitefield:
http://www.permies.com/t/19732/permaculture-podcast/Podcast-Interview-Maddy-Harland-Permaculture

and here there are other things on Patrick:
http://www.permies.com/t/7181/permaculture/Permaculture-Magazine#71256

I agree there needs to be some stuff on Patrick Whitefield on here Lorenzo but those threads you linked are not good rich book summaries like this one: Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway

Do you see the difference?

Would you like to make some book summary threads for Patrick's works? I can send you over a book summary template and you can make them fairly easy.

how about:
Carla Emery's The Encyclopedia of Country Living

It really got me headed down this path in the late 70's and is still very relevant

and the FoxFire books

Yeah Rick that one does look good! Would you like to create a book summary thread for it? I could send you the book summary template and it would take you probably no more than 30-45 minutes!

For those people that write a dozen reviews or more, it might be possible that I can get you free books from the publishers.

Great idea/execution, I'm about half way through permaculture kitchen and then will jump in on some more.

Nice,
Seth Peterson

Cassie Langstraat wrote:I agree there needs to be some stuff on Patrick Whitefield on here Lorenzo but those threads you linked are not good rich book summaries like this one: Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway

Do you see the difference?

Would you like to make some book summary threads for Patrick's works? I can send you over a book summary template and you can make them fairly easy.

send on and I'll see about it writing some

Thanks Seth! Looking forward to hearing what you thought of permaculture Kitchen.

Lorenzo, I emailed you the summary template.

How about:

Fermented Vegetables by Kirsten and Christopher Shockey?

It's a great new book that I am tearing through right now.

Luke, that does look like a really good one. Would you like to try to create a book summary thread for it? I can send you the template.

Cassie, yes please do; I will give it a shot!

Can I get a book review template as well?
Seth

Well Seth, what I gave Luke is a book summary template, not a book review template. We don't really have one of those. You just start your post with "i give this book 7 out of 10 acorns" (or however many acorns you want to give) and then write the review. That simple. Oh, and you post it ON the book summary thread.

You forgot sepp holzer's Permaculture: A Practical Guide! I am working through that one now. Possum Living by Dolly Free deserves honorable mention too!

Hey Chris,

Would you like to create a rich book summary thread for those? One that looks like the threads in the original post? I could even give you a book summary template so it wouldn't be too difficult.

Cassie, I am still working through Sepp's book but could start with Possum Living. Send me the template and I will try, k?

Cris, I did send you the template in an email! Check your emails from me.

A couple of notes:

The books that have the most reviews will be moved to the top of the grid.

The people that have done the most reviewing will be moved to the left of the grid.

Once the grid is a bit more fleshed out, we will feature it extremely prominently within permies. Plus, I think that publishers will then be keen to have their books reviewed by permies.

Once we have books doing well, then we can do DVDs, then tools and other products.

The key is that this book review grid is a jumping off point for a dozen evil plots. We just got to fill out that grid!

Several new book summaries have been added to the list in the first post above.........does anyone see anything they could write a review for?

bump

The first six people to write twelve or more reviews will receive goodies.

The first three people will receive ONE HUCKLEBERRY PIE delivered to your door (US only), plus they will each receive a $100 gift certificate to amazon.com.

The next three people will also receive a huckleberry pie (US only).

So that means that SIX people will receive ONE HUCKLEBERRY PIE.


I suspect that there are a hundred of you that have already read about 40 relavant books. And if you just put that book in your lap, you could write a paragraph or two in just a couple of minutes. Complete with the first line of your post mentioning the number of acorns you would give it.

Plus, once you have written a dozen, I will be able to arrange with publishers to get you free books so you could write more reviews.

ah, well.... doughnuts are better anyways.

Sorry if I have missed something, but how do we suggest books to be reviewed, that are not on the list above?

Richard Gorny wrote:Sorry if I have missed something, but how do we suggest books to be reviewed, that are not on the list above?

Post a list to this thread of the books you would like to review.

If you wish to start your own thread, that's fine. I just ask for two things:

1) Make the first post media rich (pics, vids and links) and all about the book, and the second post is your review.

2) At the bottom of the first post, please include the line "(I am totally cool with permies.com staff editing this post)"

I have been asked:

Just to clarify the rules. Do reviews that were done prior to your April 21st date count or will it just be the 12 reviews from then on?

Reviews of all time count.

Thank you Paul, when I get back home I will post titles of a few permie books I can review here. I like uniformed look of the book review posts very much, so it is probably better to leave that to the staff who is doing great job here.

Darrell Freys', Bioshelter Market Garden, is a one of kind book, with not many to compare to.
I give it 10 out of 10 acorns. The title is short sweet and simple, and he covers it all.

I had the personal pleasure and opportunity to have Mr frey, as my PDC instructor, and a chance to visit his farm. Darrell has taken passive solar greenhouses to a whole new level, when permaculture was in its infancy. After studying the new alchemy institutes bioshelter ark, Darrell set out to build his own. The book is a vast bank of detailed examples and explained systems of every aspect of his now, 30 year old bioshelter. As factual and scientific his writing is, Darrell frey, never ceases to use fluid, poetry - like descriptions of the bioshelter throughout the seasons, and changes. I try to explain what a bioshelter is to some people...and I compare it to the phrase, Beyond organic', to 'beyond a greenhouse'.

That being said, there is also a vast amount of detailed information on , market gardening. Based off of a successful, 5 acre, permaculture farm, bioshelter included.

Just a warning, it is only for the serious growers. Not that it is a bad thing, but some people may not be able to apply some of the aspects in an urban setting.

Sorry, I got excited and didn't notice each book had a thread, can someone move me please

Chad,

I think your best bet would be to copy and paste.

Richard Gorny wrote:Thank you Paul, when I get back home I will post titles of a few permie books I can review here. I like uniformed look of the book review posts very much, so it is probably better to leave that to the staff who is doing great job here.

The uniformed look of the book summary threads is not that difficult to create. I can send you a template that would make it really easy. It's not only staff members who create the threads for books, anyone can do it.

Whattya say? PM me your email address and I can send it to you. Or just send me an email at cassie at richsoil dot com