Malibu is a hiking book about the natural beauty and ecology of Southern California. It combines philosophy and a love of nature and California's unspoiled coastal beauty. It is also a tale of a tragedy, as that landscape is torn up and paved over for "progress", and Malibu is reduced to just another celebrity suburb of L.A. In the late 1980's and 1990's, I spent the better part of my free time hiking the canyons and coastline of Malibu. The era of uncrowded openness that I loved was rapidly coming to an end by development. I wanted to capture in words the richness of the natural beauty and ecology of Malibu, but increasingly I also saw Malibu as a tragic metaphor for future of California, and the country as a whole. Malibu is a mixture of a "West-coast Walden" and a modern day "In Praise of Folly".

It is irreverent and outrageous, lyrical and ludicrous. It extols the virtues of a surfer's life and castigates the "illth" of modern materialism. It is a polemic on the core values of modern life and challenges the premises that rule our everyday lives. Malibu has a place in environmental literature and Western philosurfphy. It invites you to read this book and take a hike.