Like an over-hyped movie...

Perhaps I'm just not in the mood for non-fiction, but reading Alan Weisman's The World Without Us seems far too much like finally catching the new big movie, only to discover that all the best bits were in the trailers you'd already seen. The first part, at least, has been so excerpted and reviewed that it really dragged. I may try the rest, but my usual test for deciding whether or not to read on – checking the last chapter and seeing whether it increases my interest in the bits between – came back with a resounding "Nay!" Weisman may have other suggestions for improving the world, but if they're as unrealistic as the idea that: for 50 years or so, all fertile women only have one child – I really don't think they're worth reading. While limiting population growth – or even more controversially, ensuring population decline – would certainly improve the environment, in a world where religious and political groups are looking to fecundity as a way of increasing their own power base it just isn't going to happen.