Review: Dream Home Dream Life by Reshave Dimri

Genre: Non-Fiction

Description:

According to the description on one on-line retailer this book is “about how to make a self-sustainable and self-reliant house.” The description on Goodreads describes it differently, but also uses verbiage about a self-sustainable and self-reliant house as well as trying to say something about helping the economy, poverty, crime, and other things.

Author:

This is Reshave Dimri’s second of three books currently available. He lives in Delhi, India with his parents and two brothers where he is employed by an IT company.

Appraisal:

This short book has issues. Lots of issues.

While it appears to have been run through a spell checker the syntax is scrambled and the grammar questionable at some point in virtually every paragraph. The purpose of the book was unclear from the description, but once I started reading it made sense for a while. It discusses various techniques and technologies that might be used or are on the verge of becoming available that can make a house more environmentally friendly, cheaper to run and maintain, etc. Just when I thought I understood the book’s scope it started discussing food and health issues. Oh, I guess that’s the “Dream Life” part of the title although it doesn’t get mentioned in the description.

Were it not for difficulty parsing the language the technologies and ideas discussed in the beginning are interesting. I could see this as valuable in giving someone ideas that they could investigate and research elsewhere to get more information. While mentioning solar and wind as a way to generate electricity, the author failed to discuss the potential need for electrical storage using battery banks or other technologies as well as the excessive costs and limitations that might be involved in doing so currently. Some of the ideas and technologies discussed might not be allowed in some areas or countries, but at least those technologies that the fall under the “Dream House” banner are worth knowing about and considering.

As the book progressed it seemed to get less and less focused, jumping around in subjects (going from a chapter on various health subjects to a couple chapters on climate control in your home and then a few chapters later the topic was “Fountain of Youth”). I also found the more I read the more I was questioning the author’s expertise, his sources for the information, and in some cases seriously questioning the information being presented.

Ultimately my conclusion is that even though some of the subjects covered here are worth knowing about, reading Dream Home Dream Life isn’t where I’d recommend going to attempt obtaining that knowledge.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

Format/Typo Issues:

Atrocious editing and proofing with constant grammar problems, use of the wrong word, etc.

Rating: * One Star

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 15-20,000 words