I guess I’m kinda not so much a ‘perfect’ vegan as a harm-reduction human and near-vegan, you know. I’d never eat meat. I also don’t think I’d buy non-vegan food, or a non-vegan cookbook, (although I don’t cook much), the way I bought one at first, but I got rid of it—well, partly because it was in the nook I’m slowly phasing out (for cringe-y, lack of tech coolness reasons. Well, at least it still works on ONE device for me…. But I digress. 🙀).

The book did influence me particularly in that I’m less likely to eat cheese now, since they take the dairy cow’s children from her and kill them, you know. 🫣 (And obviously at the end of a dairy cow’s life it gets painfully butchered by hyper-oppressed people who end up needing, and not getting, therapy. But that was in the other book.) So I’m less likely to let people buy me cheese at our get-togethers. (Even my vegetarian-y mom is very non-vegan.) Bagels instead of pizza, for example. (They can still get corpse bagels, lol, I just take two un-doctored ones.) Although I don’t really like eggs, my mom’s friend owns four hens and she insists on giving me eggs. (Children have no agency—even after thirty.) I guess I might eat regular pizza at work if they’re just going to use up the pizza anyway, I don’t know. But I feel differently about cheese now.

I also learned about plastic water bottles being unhealthy—melted plastic in the water—and bought a water filter and stainless steel water bottle.

I guess that the other end of things, where I’m not sure I can ever be vegan, or at least now, is medicine. I live and interact with people who are aggressively normal, so I think if I do much as Raised The Question of vegan medicine, they’d arrest me for criminal weirdness, you know. But I think I feel somewhat differently about medicine. If the pig is like me and they use the pig for medicine and kill him because of how similar we are…. Well, at least we don’t do that and then have pork because piggies are Not like us, you know. But then, I don’t know everything.

I got this book largely because of the part on vegan clothes, but I found it pretty disappointing. It basically said, What clothing materials are vegan? Google it! And I’m like, thanks; I use ecosia, the search engine that plants trees—but basically it’s the same right. Search engines, the tool I already had. I buy books because I want more; I want analysis; I want it…. Systematized.

But anyway. We have a body, and sometimes what we put in it and how we interact with the would physically matters. Overall all, it’s a perfectly passable book, you know.

I was nervous at first: most alternative lifestyle books can be quite preachy, and I hate some of the arguments most make for the vegan lifestyles (well, a lot of lifestyles prone to fanaticism). Of course, this book had its chapter of "logical" arguments on why to convert; I could debunk most of the arguments (my biggest pet-peeve is that farm animals have be bred to be domesticated and could not become wild again, so the more pragmatic approach is to further promote the work of ethical farmers and treating animals well, and education - in some cases, punishment - for those who don't) simply because they are not nuisanced or very pragmatic. I am actually often accused of being an idealist, but even I cannot swallow a lot of it.

But that was only one chapter, and by far not the most preachy of all "conversion" writing I have read. In fact, there are multiple times in the book where she tells you to cheat - mostly she says if there is no vegan medicine available, the world and your family is better served by you doing what you need to survive/stay healthy and for you to advocate the development of alternatives; and a martyr won't really help the cause anyway. I appreciate this and other practical opinions she expressed.

Actually, I liked the book: it was approachable, understandable, workable, commonsensical (yes, it's a word), and had small moments of humour (though not as much as other Dummies books I've read). It lived up to the Dummies reputation in that I really have a firm grasp of the basics in the eating and the lifestyle. I do not feel ready to go vegan after this, as I do not think I could properly balance the foods necessary to ensure the proper consumption of certain nutrition - in particular, all the amino acids to create full proteins - but I do not think this is the book's fault: (a) it is a library book that I must return, so I cannot revisit the chapter where she discusses that; (b) how balanced do you think my current diet is? I'm a little behind. I may discuss partial veganism (don't say that isn't vegan!) with my nutritionist.

I read the book to get a better understanding of my vegan friends and to balance my boyfriend's egg/milk allergy with my desires to eat less meat. I definitely met this goal. I will not be converting to the lifestyle (I'm eating less meat, eggs, dairy, etc. but BF wants meat - occasionally so do I - and vegan cheese is just not cheese; I love milk and eggs far too much to not occasionally indulge). However, I do make more vegan meals and more vegan choices for the lifestyle e.g. I've been buying more environmental products, even soy candles as I finish my beloved beeswax candles. At the very least, I feel capable of feeding my vegan friends when they visit for dinner or even weeks.

Bottom line: I don't think it is capable of being your own bible for veganism, but it is a great starting point if you are interested in the lifestyle or if you are simply trying to learn to be more supportive of a loved one's choices. ( )

I was nervous at first: most alternative lifestyle books can be quite preachy, and I hate some of the arguments most make for the vegan lifestyles (well, a lot of lifestyles prone to fanaticism). Of course, this book had its chapter of "logical" arguments on why to convert; I could debunk most of the arguments (my biggest pet-peeve is that farm animals have be bred to be domesticated and could not become wild again, so the more pragmatic approach is to further promote the work of ethical farmers and treating animals well, and education - in some cases, punishment - for those who don't) simply because they are not nuisanced or very pragmatic. I am actually often accused of being an idealist, but even I cannot swallow a lot of it.

But that was only one chapter, and by far not the most preachy of all "conversion" writing I have read. In fact, there are multiple times in the book where she tells you to cheat - mostly she says if there is no vegan medicine available, the world and your family is better served by you doing what you need to survive/stay healthy and for you to advocate the development of alternatives; and a martyr won't really help the cause anyway. I appreciate this and other practical opinions she expressed.

Actually, I liked the book: it was approachable, understandable, workable, commonsensical (yes, it's a word), and had small moments of humour (though not as much as other Dummies books I've read). It lived up to the Dummies reputation in that I really have a firm grasp of the basics in the eating and the lifestyle. I do not feel ready to go vegan after this, as I do not think I could properly balance the foods necessary to ensure the proper consumption of certain nutrition - in particular, all the amino acids to create full proteins - but I do not think this is the book's fault: (a) it is a library book that I must return, so I cannot revisit the chapter where she discusses that; (b) how balanced do you think my current diet is? I'm a little behind. I may discuss partial veganism (don't say that isn't vegan!) with my nutritionist.

I read the book to get a better understanding of my vegan friends and to balance my boyfriend's egg/milk allergy with my desires to eat less meat. I definitely met this goal. I will not be converting to the lifestyle (I'm eating less meat, eggs, dairy, etc. but BF wants meat - occasionally so do I - and vegan cheese is just not cheese; I love milk and eggs far too much to not occasionally indulge). However, I do make more vegan meals and more vegan choices for the lifestyle e.g. I've been buying more environmental products, even soy candles as I finish my beloved beeswax candles. At the very least, I feel capable of feeding my vegan friends when they visit for dinner or even weeks.

Bottom line: I don't think it is capable of being your own bible for veganism, but it is a great starting point if you are interested in the lifestyle or if you are simply trying to learn to be more supportive of a loved one's choices. ( )