In this fascinating book, Eleanor Tucker sets out a bold vision of how sustainable sharing can save us money, and lead to a happier future.
What is the Sharing Economy? How can it help us live more affordable, more sustainable, and ultimately more fulfilling lives? What would happen if for one year a family pledged to share as much as they possibly can? Instead ofowning more and more stuff, what it’s like to stop owning things and borrow, lend, rent and swap instead?
These are big questions, but features writer Eleanor Tucker sets out to answer them in this thoroughly absorbing and entertaining guide to sustainable sharing, or as it is also known, ‘collaborative consumption’.
In this engrossing study, Eleanor straps us into on her year-long experiment along with her somewhat reluctant family. Over the course of the year, with the aid of various sharing apps, they will pledge to buy as few new things as possible, instead relying on the power of sharing, lending, renting and borrowing to supply their needs.
Each chapter introduces a different type of sharing into her day to day life, from thelittle ‘things’ (food, clothes) to the bigger ’things’ (cars, furniture, the space around us), and shows how the growth of tech has revolutionized an age-old practice.
The book contains best-for recommendations based around different types of sharing, to create an easily accessible shortcut into sharing.
Review
On a whim, I requested Thanks For Sharing from Netgalley to learn more about the sharing economy. I feel I did and I didn’t. If you are already familiar with the concept, the information provided might seem quite basic. By that I mean what the sharing economy is and the different types of products you can share. However, I did discover a whole bunch of companies that make sharing much easier (although be aware that for many of the categories, the companies are predominantly UK/US based).
The blurb of this book claims it is well-researched, but it depends on how you personally define well-researched. Each chapter does include some information from experts explaining how sharing is not really a new concept, and providing information about how certain sharing economies came to be about and why. However, while I felt I learned a lot here, this type of information was minimal. Most of the research comes from the author’s dedication to the sharing economy and what she personally learned on her journey. Also valuable research, in my opinion.
I liked the way Thanks For Sharing was written. While each chapter introduces a new economy, the others which the author has experimented with are not forgotten and we see how she progresses with them overtime. I also really liked the author’s humour and her relationship with her family was really sweet.
Thanks For Sharing is a good introduction to the sharing economy. You can pick up a copy of the book here.
Joyful Antidotes 