The Last Hours Of Ancient Sunlight by Thom Hartmann  

This is the first book I read on Peak Oil, and I'd recommend it to anyone who is interested in the subject.

I had come across the topic a few times over the preceding year, in share tip sheets that referred ominously to Hubbert's Peak (which I basically ignored thinking it an attempt to further push up the price of oil and gas companies, which were already running due to the rising price of oil) and various conspiracy theory sites (which I also ignored thinking that they sounded too crazy in general for this aspect to be taken too seriously).

Eventually I came across some of George Monbiot's articles which referred to the concept from a number of angles, which were a bit harder to ignore. By pure coincidence, I'd bought this book at the same time simply because I'd liked reading some of Thom Hartmann's columns in the lead up to the 2004 US election and I thought I'd see what his books were like.

The book covers a range of topics - the creation and use of oil, ecology, older and younger cultures and the problems with societies based on the idea of infinite growth. It veers off onto some new age style religious stuff at the end, but even so - its an interesting read.