The World Without Us

The book is exceptionally well written. The subject content is extemely important and broken up into easily readable but stunning segments.

When I say difficult to read, I don't mean that "The World Without Us" is unusually dense or technical. Weisman's various explorations of how the world would be if the problem of humans was removed are fascinating, informative, accessible, and at times downright alarming and scary (the section about plastics blew my mind - I had never thought about seemingly harmless plastics in such a way before). However, his vignettes are sometimes unrelated or irrelevant to one another and there is no overreaching logic or organization in the book other than the question, "What if humans disappeared today?" There are also many frustrating digressions that interrupt or distract during the vignettes. However, I still recommend it for its thought-provoking value for those who are willing to transcend its organizational chaos.

this book is getting a lot of press.
a clever idea, each chapter takes on a particular way that the absence of human beings would effect the world.

part of it's attraction to me is the new trivia that i learned from the book, a life long obsession, it is a real treat to have so many details that i was unaware of.

but the big picture is really the question, what would happen to cities and nuclear power plants and such if we humans just 'poof' gone?

but even more to the point, what is our real impact on the environment? this book goes a long way towards putting together the pieces which will result in answering these important questions.

i found the short chapter 13-the world without war, the most fascinating, it is basically about the dmz in korea. and would recommend reading it first if you are sitting in a bookstore or library trying to decide whether to try the book or not. the chapters are more self contained essays and reading any one of them will help you see what the book is about and the author's style.

I found this book by Alan Weisman very well researched and thought provoking.

It helped me to see what a short time humans have been on our little planet, the harm they have caused and how the planet would heal if we humans were no longer here.

The book helps to show that we humans are really only another life form on Earth but that we cause the most damage to all other life forms.

Parts of the book are rather depressing but by the end of the book I felt that I had learned a lot us useful stuff and had two others waiting to borrow the book.

This book was a selection for our non-fiction book club at our local library. I agree with the quote on the front of the book by Bill KcKibben; that this book is "a tremendous feat of imaginative reporting". It was both extremely informative and depressing all at once. Still not sure if it qualifies as non-fiction or not, but much of the information, data, and statistics were very much real. For those interested in the future of the earth, it's worth a read.