Author William Powers at Changing Hands

Twelve square feet. No Water. No Electricity.It's not the story of capture, punishment or even a doomed family vacation -- William Powers' Twelve by Twelve is his story of a season spent in rural North Carolina at the home of Dr. Jackie Benton.Powers, a successful physician, had just returned from...

By Claire Lawton

May 25, 2010

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Twelve square feet. No Water. No Electricity.

It's not the story of capture, punishment or even a doomed family vacation -- William Powers' Twelve by Twelve is his story of a season spent in rural North Carolina at the home of Dr. Jackie Benton.

Powers, a successful physician, had just returned from a decade of international aid work and was offered a place -- a very small one -- to stay while Dr. Benton was traveling. He describes his story as "a paradigm shift to an elusive "Soft World" with clues to personal happiness and global healing."

He visits Changing Hands on Wednesday, May 26, at 7pm to discuss his experience and answer a few questions.

We caught up with Powers (right before he read for a D.C. audience this afternoon) to ask a few of our own ...

Five Books on Your Summer Reading List:

A Fool's Progress by Edward Abbey
The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

... (continued after the jump)

Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Anne Lamott-- I want to reread one of her early novels
Dignity and Defiance by Jim Schultz and Melissa Draper

Four Great Things About Having Electricity
Laptop
espresso machine
music
(solar electric) hot water

Three Better Things About NOT Having Electricity
No laptop!
Lack of refrigerator hum and standby lights
Candlelight, lots of it

Two Reasons You Would Go Back to Dr. Benton's
To hear the murmur of No Name Creek
To chat with her in the permaculture fields

One Important Lesson You Learned During Your Stay
Staying mal-adjusted to empire ... for me that means maintaining my own creativity and voice ... and linking with others doing this

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