[HonestPessimist]

I'm still waiting for Jack U. Dumbas' long-awaited book that is supposed to leave all other peak oil books toasted and left to the dusts:

"When the Sh*t Hits the Fan" is the apt name of the long-awaited book! Cost $25 for hardcover. The author have been working on this book since he worked under Hubbert. Kinda slow, you know?

[HonestPessimist]

Whatever you guys reading books, just don't read Robert Fisk's books.

Fisking

His latest book was so full of errors and factually and historically wrong. One Arabic book reviewer actually "torched" the book after reviewing it.

[halcyon]

I would recommend 'The Great New Game' as an interesting investigative journalism piece into the volatile area of 'last remaining disputed stock' areas of the world.

It's not purely about Peak Oil argumentation per se, but rather (as any sane approach) takes it as basically already proven. It shows the countries, their leaders, global energy giants and the coalitions working to try to seize them. It's not going to pretty in the years to come.

As for not recommended, 'End of Oil' falls firmly in that category. The writer has no concept of EROEI in the book, talks about hydrogen economy as something useful and to me cannot separate a proper scientific argument from an advocate rant, when he's quoting his sources. Avoid, not a good book overall, imho.

I'd really like to see a book written by a group consisting of a physicist, a macroeconomist, a biologist and a geologist together. They'd only use scientific data and scientific arguments. No 'crystal ball' approach, just saying what is happening now and how the systemic forces of nature, energy resources, energy economy and macroeconomics are playing together, without saying what the consequences will be in the end (nobody really knows that).



Is there such a book?

[katkinkate]

"The Last Days of Ancient Sunlight" Thomm Hartman
Covers basics of oil depletion and then heads off into some social implications.

[clover]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('clv101', 'T')he single best peak oil book I've read (well I'm half way through it at the moment) and I've read most of them is Half Gone: Oil, Gas, Hot Air and the Global Energy Crisis by Jeremy Leggett (in the US the same book has a different title, The Empty Tank : Oil, Gas, Hot Air, and the Coming Global Financial Catastrophe).

[Palkerss]

Hi,
As odd as it may sound I was wondering if any of you would be eager to help a poor polish student keen on the Peak Oil Theory - particularly by contributing a book or two (I'll try to compensate the costs of shipping) on the subject known to us all. Besides, most of the books are not available in Poland (I could order them from the UK but they're insanely expensive), not even at my University's Library :/ so by sending me the book you'd eventually help Uniwersytet Gdanski where I study
Should any of you suddenly become intensively enthusiastic about my idea let me know by sending me a msg
Cheers, Palkerss.

[lateStarter]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Palkerss', 'H')i,
As odd as it may sound I was wondering if any of you would be eager to help a poor polish student keen on the Peak Oil Theory - particularly by contributing a book or two (I'll try to compensate the costs of shipping) on the subject known to us all. Besides, most of the books are not available in Poland (I could order them from the UK but they're insanely expensive), not even at my University's Library :/ so by sending me the book you'd eventually help Uniwersytet Gdanski where I study
Should any of you suddenly become intensively enthusiastic about my idea let me know by sending me a msg
Cheers, Palkerss.

[lexicon]

My top five:

1. The Party's Over by Richard Heinberg

2. Crossing the Rubicon by Michael C. Ruppert

3. The Oil Age is Over by Matt Savinar

4. Powerdown by Richard Heinberg

5. The Long Emergency by James Howard Kunstler


I haven't read any of Deffeyes books, but these are my favorites so far.

[MattSavinar]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('HonestPessimist', '
')
I'm still waiting for Jack U. Dumbas' long-awaited book that is supposed to leave all other peak oil books toasted and left to the dusts:

"When the Sh*t Hits the Fan" is the apt name of the long-awaited book! Cost $25 for hardcover. The author have been working on this book since he worked under Hubbert. Kinda slow, you know?

[The_sky_is_falling]

I have only read 3 so far but they are ranked in this order...

1. Half Gone by Jerremy Legget (very good overall explainantion)

2. Twilight in the Desert (skim technical bit and rest is very interesting)

3. The Long Emergency (scary but not out of the question)


I am now looking to read The Party's Over.

[Aimrehtopyh]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lokutus', 'I')'ve only read The Long Emergency so far.

[halcyon]

Of the most recent books, I must recommend 'The Last Oil Shock'. It covers fairly wide area: geo-strategy, oil pricing, upstream issues, geology, infrastructure, economical implications and of course, resource wars.

It is very well written, engaging and does not hold punches.

[Offshore]

1. The Coming Economic Collapse: How You Can Thrive When Oil Costs $200 a Barrel -- Stephen Leeb

2. Black Gold: The New Frontier In Oil For Investors -- George Orwel

3. Twilight In The Desert -- Matthew Simmons

I'm looking forward to 4. Profit From The Peak: The End of Oil and the Greatest Investment Event of the Century by Brian Hicks and Chris Nelder which comes out in February.

[Pops]

If one has read this site and what TOD publishes I can’t figure out why one would want some more reading.

Unless reading is preferable to doing.

Oh yea…

[BigTex]

The End of Oil by Paul Roberts treats the PO issue with balance and doesn't pour on the doom too thickly. It's also well written. You will take a lot away from the book.

The more time that passes after reading The Long Emergency, the more annoyed I get with Kunstler's whole act. I don't know what it is, but something about Kunstler just doesn't add up. I think that he is certain modern civilization is going to end, and PO is his way of expressing it. I think he wrote some similar things leading up to Y2K ("Y2K is gonna kill us all!!!"). There is a difference between approaching a subject like PO with an open mind and concluding that it's a big problem, as opposed to approaching every subject with the certainty that the sky is falling and PO just happens to be a real sky is falling scenario.

I hear good things about Deffeyes' books.

[Narz]

I liked "PowerDown" & "The Long Emergency" the best myself (more so than "The Party's Over" and "Crossing the Rubicon").

I compiled a list of people's recommendations (from a similar thread on this very forum). They are all listed in the link in my sig (you don't have to buy anything, you can simply review the list, if you do buy keep in mind you're helping me out a bit, it's just amazon.com but with different clothes).

[halcyon]

Another behind the scenes book is "Addicted to Oil" by an energy economist Ian Rutledge. Really well researched, full of footnotes, goes behind the scenes, explains motives and systemic causes. Heavy reading at times though.

[RacerJace]

Apart form the usual suspects.. Simmons, Kuntsler, Hienberg et al who write very sobering and oft dry accounts of the subject and its consequences (I have not read all of them by the way), my most recently read and highly recommended titles include ..

'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy.. a fictional post nuclear apocalyptic story about a man and his son. It is a devastating read and is beautifully written. A real story of the human condition and a stripped down raw look at the survival instinct.

'Last Light' by Alex Scarrow.. this one is a bit of a Ludlum-esk fictional conspiracy story about what could simply be described as the 'great culling of the human species' and peak oil is the primary tool. Whilst reading this one I found myself having mild panic attacks thinking I should go to the supermarket and start stocking up on non-perishable supplies.

Just today my wife gave me copy of 'The Upside of Down' by Thomas Homer-Dixon.. It was a father's day present. She thought I should have a look at the slightly more optimistic view of the collapse of civilization as we know it.. What are the upsides..?

I'll post a comment on it when I've had a chance to read it..
.

[Jenab6]

I'm reading William Catton's OVERSHOOT: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change now. It's pretty good, except for the racial brotherhood squid ink he inserts in places. He makes up for part of it though, by hinting at the truth of the matter.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('William Catton, OVERSHOOT, p. 80', 'E')cologically speaking, the American dream expressed in human terms an exuberance that characteristically follows invasion of a new habitat by any species that happens to have the traits required for prompt and effective adaptation to it. Human beings have exaggerated the apparent uniqueness of their own encounter with the felicitous circumstances of a New World. The "uniqueness of Homo sapiens" will be carefully reconsidered in a later chapter. For now, it is sufficient to note that few people have realized how frequently a similar experience has happened to other species whenever access was gained to a suitable but previously inaccessible habitat. As long as the members of an invading species remain far less numerous than the maximum population ultimately permitted by the carrying capacity of a new habitat, proliferation is easy, and competitive pressure upon the members of that species population will be low. Competition within the species may even be negligible when the small population is surfeited with unused resources waiting to be exploited.