Green Books Campaign: The Evolutionary Glitch by Dr. Albert Garoli

This review is a late addition to the Green Books campaign. 200 bloggers took a stand on November 10, 2010 to support books printed in an eco-friendly manner by simultaneously publishing reviews of 200 books printed on recycled or FSC-certified paper. By turning a spotlight on books printed using eco- friendly paper, we hope to raise the awareness of book buyers and encourage everyone to take the environment into consideration when purchasing books.

The campaign is organized for the second time by Eco-Libris, a green company working to make reading more sustainable. We invite you to join the discussion on "green" books and support books printed in an eco-friendly manner! A full list of participating blogs and links to their reviews is available on Eco-Libris website.

The book we review as part of the Green Books campaign is:

The Evolutionary Glitch: Rise Above the Root of Your Problems

Author: Dr. Albert Garoli
Albert Garoli is a proficient health practitioner, medical researcher, and educator. He is a specialist in Ayurvedic medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Acupuncture, Herbology, Biophysics, and Homotoxicology. Currently, he is teaching in the Italian College of Osteopathy (C.I.O) as well as the Italian School for Oriental Medicine (ScuolaTao), in convention with University Sapienza of Rome. He is also the director of the Holonomics cooperative project. His many years of experience have brought him to a revolutionary understanding of human neurobiology which is clearly explained in his new book: The Evolutionary Glitch.

Publisher: Loving Healing Press

Published on: January 2010

What this book is about?
Ever wonder what it is that keeps holding you back?
Deep within the constructs of your brain, a superimposed identity has been formed. This "glitch", embedded in your neural network through the evolution of brain development, is an acquired Persona which perpetuates itself by constantly creating problems and limitations in your life. The Personal thinks for you, acts for you, and even learns for you, but it is NOT the real YOU! In this revolutionary book, you will discover which of the six major types of Personas you have unwittingly acquired, and you will learn how to free yourself from the power it has over you. Like a remedy for an illness,

The Evolutionary Glitch serves as a guide to confronting and rising above the root of your problems. Drawing on ancient wisdom as well as the latest discoveries in neurobiology and quantum physics, The Evolutionary Glitch will radically change the way you see yourself and the world around you.

Learn the skills you need to...

Uproot the Persona you have acquired

Break the problem-causing patterns in your life

Follow the "signs" in your life

Identify your true nature

Do what you were born to do

If you are ready to discover what is hidden behind the mask of your Personal, free yourself from your problems, and live your life with purpose and direction, The Evolutionary Glitch could be the most important book you've ever read.

What we think about it?
Reading this book I found myself thinking many times thinking about Ken Wilber's books. Like Wilber, Garoli's unique work is insightful, complex, inspiring and embedding Eastern and Western philosophy. Like Wilber's work, this book is taking you to an interesting journey of self-exploration that you know where it starts and you have no idea where it will end.

This book, at least for me, was something that should be consumed in small pieces to get the most out of it. I read sentences such as "While your Persona lies strong, your deductive capabilities are too biased and cannot function as a reliable source of observation" and need to put the book aside for a little while and digest what I just read. If I compare it to food, this is by no means a light snack or a quick lunch, but more of a long and gratifying French-style dinner.

Garoli presents in this book an holistic approach based on physics, philosophy, neurobiology and physiology uncovering the 'glitch' in our nervous system and providing a detailed road map to get ourselves better and get rid of these flaws.

If you're willing to dig deeper into yourself and explore the roots of your own persona, break down familiar patterns and find ways it seems we already lost to natural well being, this book is for you. It doesn't have in it the secret for happy life or some vague promise to fix all your problems in 12 simple steps, but it does include an invitation to a unique journey inside your own mind and body that can result in beneficial self-discoveries.

Last but not least, this book is printed on FSC-certified paper!

Disclosure: We received a copy of this book from the publisher.

If you're looking for other interesting green books, please check out the Green Books Campaign's page at www.ecolibris.net/greenbookscampaign2010.asp .

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

The Guinness World Records - how one ebook can save printing 1.15 billion pages a year?

I read some good news for the environment today: Chris Meadows reported on TeleRead that Guinness World Records was just published in an e-book edition, including "288 pages of 4,000 world records, including new and updated versions, as well as classic records."

Why it's good news for the environment? Because no matter how uncertain we are about the greenness of e-books (and we still are), there are some books that should be transformed to e-book format no matter what. Guinness World Records is one of them.

Now, don't get me wrong. I loved this book when I was a kid, but I'm not sure how many people still open the book to find information on these records at the age of the Internet. According to Amazon.com "Over 100 million copies have sold since the first edition was published in 1955. Nearly 4 million copies are sold every year in more than 100 countries and in 25 languages."

Quick calculation brings me to 1.15 billion pages that were printed for this book in 2010 alone. That's a lot of trees as well, which can be saved if this information will be available electronically. It's not just the fact that it's a thick book that makes it a good candidate for e-book format, it's also and mainly the fact that it's updated every year. In such situations, I believe that with the exception of libraries, it's a win-win-win for the consumers, the publisher and the environment to have this book only available as an ebook.

The eBook edition is published by Hachette Book Group, which also distributes the print edition.
Samantha Fay, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Guinness World Records had this statement quoted on eBookNewser: “We are all excited at Guinness World Records to debut our first eBook in North America. We have watched the rise of the eBook market with interest, and in Hachette found the perfect partner to faithfully convert our complex and inspiring title so the 2011 Edition can be enjoyed for the first time in digital form.”

Well, I hope that we'll have many more years of interesting records, such as the longest banner flown by a helicopter (4,166.72 m²), collected by Guinness World Records and provided to us electronically with a new record of trees cut down to print the Guinness World Records - zero.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!