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    <name><![CDATA[Jo]]></name>
    <location><![CDATA[Brooklyn, NY]]></location>
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    <book>
  <id type="integer">143159</id>
  <isbn>0060570059</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780060570057</isbn13>
  <text_reviews_count type="integer">149</text_reviews_count>
  <title>
    <![CDATA[Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology]]>
  </title>
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  <average_rating>3.60</average_rating>
  <ratings_count>512</ratings_count>
  <description>
    <![CDATA[<p>What is the least we need to achieve the most? With this question in mind, MIT graduate <strong>Eric Brende</strong> flipped the switch on technology. He and his wife, Mary, ditched their car, electric stove, refrigerator, running water, and everything else motorized or &quot;hooked to the grid,&quot; and spent eighteen months living in a remote community so primitive in its technology that even the Amish consider it antiquated.</p> <p><strong>Better Off</strong> is the story of their real-life experiment to see whether our cell phones, wide-screen TVs, and SUVs have made life easier -- or whether life would be preferable without them. This smart, funny, and enlightening book mingles scientific analysis with the human story to demonstrate how a world free of technological excess can shrink stress -- and waistlines -- and expand happiness, health, and leisure.</p>This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.]]>
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<authors>
    <author>
    <id>82717</id>
        <name><![CDATA[Eric Brende]]></name>
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    <average_rating>3.61</average_rating>
    <ratings_count>560</ratings_count>
    <text_reviews_count>171</text_reviews_count>
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  </authors>  <published>2004</published>
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    <rating>2</rating>
  <votes>4</votes>
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  <read_at>Thu Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007</read_at>
  <date_added>Thu Aug 30 15:06:54 -0700 2007</date_added>
  <date_updated>Thu Dec 17 07:56:09 -0800 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[While it had an interesting premise, it didn't come close to living up to my expectations. A naive city boy decides to go &quot;off the grid&quot; for a year, but rather than try it on his own (a la Helen and Scott Nearing), he throws in the kitsch of moving into a community of religious folks akin ...<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5380279">more...</a>]]></body>
    
  <url><![CDATA[http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5380279]]></url>
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