On my commute lately I have been reading absolutely the most interesting books. It is the one good thing about commuting, for sure. Recently I’ve finished Geography of Nowhere and Home from Nowhere, both by James Howard Kunstler – they were written years apart and not formally intended to be a set, but obviously treat similar issues.

For a while I have felt very torn regarding where I want to live “when I grow up,” or, haha, where M and I want to settle semi-permanently to raise a family. Coming from a very rural area I have always aspired to similar – and I think I still do, although there are merits of quasi-city living that I can certainly see and enjoy now. What I don’t think I can abide by, however, is the suburbs. Until reading these books though, I have never been able to quite articulate why!

Both of these focus on the economic repercussions of how we’ve chosen to build and expand in America post-WWII – and the ways that life is divided into places people live and work. Kunstler posits that our whole geographic way of life is dependent on a virtually unlimited supply of cheap gasoline – which we all know won’t be around forever, and that the places we’ve built to live in now are highly unsuitable for long-term community, life, and economic health.

( Read more - Geography of Nowhere )

( Read more - Home from Nowhere )

If anyone has actually read all this or even read those particular books, I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts.