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The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet
Goodreads Choice Award
Winner for Readers' Favorite Nonfiction (2021)A deeply moving and mind-expanding collection of personal essays in the first ever work of non-fiction from #1 internationally bestselling author John Green
The Anthropocene is the current geological age, in which human activity has profoundly shaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his ground-breaking, critically acclaimed podcast, John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet - from the QWERTY keyboard and Halley's Comet to Penguins of Madagascar - on a five-star scale.
Complex and rich with detail, the Anthropocene's reviews have been praised as 'observations that double as exercises in memoiristic empathy', with over 10 million lifetime downloads. John Green's gift for storytelling shines throughout this artfully curated collection about the shared human experience; it includes beloved essays along with six all-new pieces exclusive to the book.
The Anthropocene is the current geological age, in which human activity has profoundly shaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his ground-breaking, critically acclaimed podcast, John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet - from the QWERTY keyboard and Halley's Comet to Penguins of Madagascar - on a five-star scale.
Complex and rich with detail, the Anthropocene's reviews have been praised as 'observations that double as exercises in memoiristic empathy', with over 10 million lifetime downloads. John Green's gift for storytelling shines throughout this artfully curated collection about the shared human experience; it includes beloved essays along with six all-new pieces exclusive to the book.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published May 18, 2021
15k people are currently reading
267k people want to read
About the author
John Green
67 books310k followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
John Green's first novel, Looking for Alaska, won the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award presented by the American Library Association. His second novel, An Abundance of Katherines, was a 2007 Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His next novel, Paper Towns, is a New York Times bestseller and won the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best YA Mystery. In January 2012, his most recent novel, The Fault in Our Stars, was met with wide critical acclaim, unprecedented in Green's career. The praise included rave reviews in Time Magazine and The New York Times, on NPR, and from award-winning author Markus Zusak. The book also topped the New York Times Children's Paperback Bestseller list for several weeks. Green has also coauthored a book with David Levithan called Will Grayson, Will Grayson, published in 2010. The film rights for all his books, with the exception of Will Grayson Will Grayson, have been optioned to major Hollywood Studios.
In 2007, John and his brother Hank were the hosts of a popular internet blog, "Brotherhood 2.0," where they discussed their lives, books and current events every day for a year except for weekends and holidays. They still keep a video blog, now called "The Vlog Brothers," which can be found on the Nerdfighters website, or a direct link here.
John Green's first novel, Looking for Alaska, won the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award presented by the American Library Association. His second novel, An Abundance of Katherines, was a 2007 Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His next novel, Paper Towns, is a New York Times bestseller and won the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best YA Mystery. In January 2012, his most recent novel, The Fault in Our Stars, was met with wide critical acclaim, unprecedented in Green's career. The praise included rave reviews in Time Magazine and The New York Times, on NPR, and from award-winning author Markus Zusak. The book also topped the New York Times Children's Paperback Bestseller list for several weeks. Green has also coauthored a book with David Levithan called Will Grayson, Will Grayson, published in 2010. The film rights for all his books, with the exception of Will Grayson Will Grayson, have been optioned to major Hollywood Studios.
In 2007, John and his brother Hank were the hosts of a popular internet blog, "Brotherhood 2.0," where they discussed their lives, books and current events every day for a year except for weekends and holidays. They still keep a video blog, now called "The Vlog Brothers," which can be found on the Nerdfighters website, or a direct link here.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 25,803 reviews
May 15, 2021
I don’t fail to see the irony in reviewing a book that’s essentially all about reviews, but I was actually pretty surprised by this book. One minute he’s talking about hot dog eating contests and Dr. pepper and the next he’s talking about human loneliness and connection and life during a pandemic. It was actually really cool to read a book that talked about COVID and the struggles of living during a pandemic, this is the first book I’ve read that really talks about it. I also really enjoyed hearing about his relationship with his brother Hank, and their discussions about the meaning of life. This book ends on a really great note, the ending gave me goosebumps.
Thanks so much to Libro.fm for providing me with an advanced listening copy!
Thanks so much to Libro.fm for providing me with an advanced listening copy!
June 12, 2021
I give John Green's ability to make me view the world with hope and wonder 5 out of 5 stars
Watch me discuss this book in my May wrap up: https://youtu.be/ouTm4bZ6TQw
Watch me discuss this book in my May wrap up: https://youtu.be/ouTm4bZ6TQw
May 18, 2021
I received a copy of this audiobook, read by John Green, through libro.fm and their ALC Program.
I am not super familiar with the podcast of the same name, but still, I knew that I was predisposed to love this. And love this I did.
This is perfectly what I enjoy in a collection of essays: each essay well crafted, but all tied together by a strong central theme. Green writes with the flair of a seasoned storyteller so that I can imagine even readers who are not usually fond of or used to non-fiction would find it easy to sink into The Anthropocene Reviewed. These are stories, after all, told accessibly, in beautiful language, and by a keen observer.
In his postscript, Green reflects on the contradictions of the human experience, the wonder of it all alongside the misery of it all. Throughout this work, Green captures those contractions well. He flawlessly ties together bits of human history and invention with personal stories, presenting both with equal skill. The macro parts of the story are clear, concise and well presented. The micro parts are vulnerable and full of emotion. I found myself also experiencing the highs and lows alongside the author. It was particularly emotional hearing Green muse on his own writing, on the pandemic, and on his relationship with his family, themes that appear throughout. Also layered throughout is a love of art and literature. At the end, Green wonders if his work is too full of quotes, as he is too full of quotes, but any other readers also full of quotes will find it a joy.
I finished the book and wanted immediately to listen again. To slowly go back through and pick out those quotes, to do a few deep Google searches into Monopoly or geese or the QWERTY keyboard. To experience again the coziness of someone telling me an interesting story, about himself, but also about myself, and also about us all.
I give The Anthropocene Reviewed 5 out of 5 stars.
I am not super familiar with the podcast of the same name, but still, I knew that I was predisposed to love this. And love this I did.
This is perfectly what I enjoy in a collection of essays: each essay well crafted, but all tied together by a strong central theme. Green writes with the flair of a seasoned storyteller so that I can imagine even readers who are not usually fond of or used to non-fiction would find it easy to sink into The Anthropocene Reviewed. These are stories, after all, told accessibly, in beautiful language, and by a keen observer.
In his postscript, Green reflects on the contradictions of the human experience, the wonder of it all alongside the misery of it all. Throughout this work, Green captures those contractions well. He flawlessly ties together bits of human history and invention with personal stories, presenting both with equal skill. The macro parts of the story are clear, concise and well presented. The micro parts are vulnerable and full of emotion. I found myself also experiencing the highs and lows alongside the author. It was particularly emotional hearing Green muse on his own writing, on the pandemic, and on his relationship with his family, themes that appear throughout. Also layered throughout is a love of art and literature. At the end, Green wonders if his work is too full of quotes, as he is too full of quotes, but any other readers also full of quotes will find it a joy.
I finished the book and wanted immediately to listen again. To slowly go back through and pick out those quotes, to do a few deep Google searches into Monopoly or geese or the QWERTY keyboard. To experience again the coziness of someone telling me an interesting story, about himself, but also about myself, and also about us all.
I give The Anthropocene Reviewed 5 out of 5 stars.
July 29, 2021
I would like more non-fiction from John Green please! I loved it. I give my experience reading this book 5 stars.
January 25, 2022
edit, jan ‘22: the place this book (and the podcast that i religiously listened to every month for the better part of my teenage years) has in my life is all-encompassing and impossible to articulate—to the point that i feel strangely indebted to it. i am almost certain that the genuine honesty and care with which john green reflects on the human experience will stay with me for the rest of my life.
—
HAND IT OVER IMMEDIATELY, JOHN.
—
HAND IT OVER IMMEDIATELY, JOHN.
January 16, 2022
Podcasts made nonfiction books, pimped with some specially written parts, rule
The Greens know how to make science rock
I knew the Green brothers from the youtube channel sci-show and crash course and expected nothing more than a great infotainment, edutainment overkill. And boy, how they delivered. I´m now even thinking about listening to the podcast to see how much it differs from the written version.
A bit of everything, never too complicated, understandable, and perfectly portioned to fit into every readers´ memory.
This is how science education should be done, no matter how dry or theoretical a theme might seem, Green understands how to make it funny, memorable, and easy to retell to always have a good science pun in the backhand if one is into social interaction. As always, there is the lurking question of why this kind of knowledge transfer still hasn´t really reached many schools and universities, but sociocultural, epigenetic evolution just seems to take its time.
The perfect mix thanks to the unique duo of
Greens´ expertise as both a successful and highly acclaimed, bestselling nonfiction writer and
science education veteran. I guess that this ingenious combination will make it one of the most mindboggling nonfiction books ever, because his huge fan community from youtube, social media, and his books combined alone are more readers than an average nonfiction author could wish for in his wettest dreams.
And the works´ quality is as high as expected, the biggest nonfiction problem of not knowing how to tell a story and have an emotional impact is a never seen problem in this, also a bit personal, collection of narrative pearls. And it´s not just STEMy stuff, there are also philosophical and sociological soft science vibes in the knowledge house, baby. Also, the emotional impact doesn´t pollute the meta, big history Green keeps clean from too subjective, emotional tones, while fully embracing them in the personal and more story and kind of character focused parts.
Antrophocenic main plotline
The red line is how the current and coming impact of our 8 billion bunch of naked ape population will form the world we live in and some of the ways of illustrating it shows the expertise the Greens have reached in finding creative, unconventional ways to clothe the old topics in shiny, new bling hot word couture. There could be, for instance, my, much darker and depressing perspectives on the future, but a positive, knowledge based way is always a great alternative to pessimistic misanthropy.
More youtube and podcast adaptions, please!
It´s a pity that there may be no further parts, at least Green said so, but maybe the success of this work may change his mind. Even if not, so many other youtube and podcast pearls should be made books and audiobooks, there are so amazing, groundbreaking ideas, theories, criticism, wit, and simple unique ways of teaching science and spreading knowledge that it would be a shame to let them be limited to the audiovisual level and not make them true, pure brain candy.
A wiki walk can be as refreshing to the mind as a walk through nature in this completely overrated real life outside books:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthrop...
The Greens know how to make science rock
I knew the Green brothers from the youtube channel sci-show and crash course and expected nothing more than a great infotainment, edutainment overkill. And boy, how they delivered. I´m now even thinking about listening to the podcast to see how much it differs from the written version.
A bit of everything, never too complicated, understandable, and perfectly portioned to fit into every readers´ memory.
This is how science education should be done, no matter how dry or theoretical a theme might seem, Green understands how to make it funny, memorable, and easy to retell to always have a good science pun in the backhand if one is into social interaction. As always, there is the lurking question of why this kind of knowledge transfer still hasn´t really reached many schools and universities, but sociocultural, epigenetic evolution just seems to take its time.
The perfect mix thanks to the unique duo of
Greens´ expertise as both a successful and highly acclaimed, bestselling nonfiction writer and
science education veteran. I guess that this ingenious combination will make it one of the most mindboggling nonfiction books ever, because his huge fan community from youtube, social media, and his books combined alone are more readers than an average nonfiction author could wish for in his wettest dreams.
And the works´ quality is as high as expected, the biggest nonfiction problem of not knowing how to tell a story and have an emotional impact is a never seen problem in this, also a bit personal, collection of narrative pearls. And it´s not just STEMy stuff, there are also philosophical and sociological soft science vibes in the knowledge house, baby. Also, the emotional impact doesn´t pollute the meta, big history Green keeps clean from too subjective, emotional tones, while fully embracing them in the personal and more story and kind of character focused parts.
Antrophocenic main plotline
The red line is how the current and coming impact of our 8 billion bunch of naked ape population will form the world we live in and some of the ways of illustrating it shows the expertise the Greens have reached in finding creative, unconventional ways to clothe the old topics in shiny, new bling hot word couture. There could be, for instance, my, much darker and depressing perspectives on the future, but a positive, knowledge based way is always a great alternative to pessimistic misanthropy.
More youtube and podcast adaptions, please!
It´s a pity that there may be no further parts, at least Green said so, but maybe the success of this work may change his mind. Even if not, so many other youtube and podcast pearls should be made books and audiobooks, there are so amazing, groundbreaking ideas, theories, criticism, wit, and simple unique ways of teaching science and spreading knowledge that it would be a shame to let them be limited to the audiovisual level and not make them true, pure brain candy.
A wiki walk can be as refreshing to the mind as a walk through nature in this completely overrated real life outside books:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthrop...
February 20, 2023
The world is a little brighter, is filled with a little more hope, for having this book exist within it…
I give The Anthropocene Reviewed five out of five stars!
I give The Anthropocene Reviewed five out of five stars!
July 9, 2021
Anthropocene (noun): the current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.
Have you ever heard that term before now? I sure hadn’t before coming across John Green’s excellent 2021 essay collection, written during COVID lockdown, in which he reviews a wide range of aspects of our existence.
Yes, John Green is the author of uber-popular Young Adult novels like The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska. But no, this is not really a book targeted to those readers. Rather, it’s written for those who delight in the mundane and revel in the extraordinary. Nonfiction lovers who read to learn could do a heck of a lot worse than to give a chance to Green’s first nonfiction foray.
In this collection, topics covered include anything and everything: teddy bears, Kentucky bluegrass, velociraptors, whispering, viral meningitis, Monopoly, Diet Dr Pepper, sunsets, and many more. Green gives a bit of historical or contextual background, shares his perspective on the subject, then rates it on a 5-star scale.
I rarely quote from books in my reviews, but seeing as how this particular one is quite meta in that I’m reviewing a book about reviews for people that primarily read and write reviews, I found this section of the Introduction fascinating:
“The five-star scale has only been used in critical analysis for the past few decades. While it occasionally applied to film criticism as early as the 1950s, the five-star scale wasn’t used to rate hotels until 1979, and it wasn’t widely used to rate books until Amazon introduced user reviews. The five-star scale really doesn’t exist for humans; it exists for data aggregation systems, which is why it did not become standard until the internet era. Making conclusions about a book’s quality from a 175-word review is hard for artificial intelligences, where as star ratings are ideal for them.”
And with that, The Anthropocene Reviewed = 4.5 stars.
Blog: https://www.confettibookshelf.com/
Have you ever heard that term before now? I sure hadn’t before coming across John Green’s excellent 2021 essay collection, written during COVID lockdown, in which he reviews a wide range of aspects of our existence.
Yes, John Green is the author of uber-popular Young Adult novels like The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska. But no, this is not really a book targeted to those readers. Rather, it’s written for those who delight in the mundane and revel in the extraordinary. Nonfiction lovers who read to learn could do a heck of a lot worse than to give a chance to Green’s first nonfiction foray.
In this collection, topics covered include anything and everything: teddy bears, Kentucky bluegrass, velociraptors, whispering, viral meningitis, Monopoly, Diet Dr Pepper, sunsets, and many more. Green gives a bit of historical or contextual background, shares his perspective on the subject, then rates it on a 5-star scale.
I rarely quote from books in my reviews, but seeing as how this particular one is quite meta in that I’m reviewing a book about reviews for people that primarily read and write reviews, I found this section of the Introduction fascinating:
“The five-star scale has only been used in critical analysis for the past few decades. While it occasionally applied to film criticism as early as the 1950s, the five-star scale wasn’t used to rate hotels until 1979, and it wasn’t widely used to rate books until Amazon introduced user reviews. The five-star scale really doesn’t exist for humans; it exists for data aggregation systems, which is why it did not become standard until the internet era. Making conclusions about a book’s quality from a 175-word review is hard for artificial intelligences, where as star ratings are ideal for them.”
And with that, The Anthropocene Reviewed = 4.5 stars.
Blog: https://www.confettibookshelf.com/
June 15, 2021
Audiobook…read by John Green
…..10 hours and 3 minutes
Nothing prepared me for how wonderful this book is.
I’m thrilled that I own it. Paul listen to parts, and now he wants his own copy on ‘his’ phone.
I haven’t had so much enjoyment learning about trivial things that are not really trivial but may be trivial things from an audiobook as much as this one.
And I haven’t thought about the really important issues of life — like this — (to my awareness) either.
I’ve always liked John Green….
I like his young adult books….
But my god…
“The Anthropocene Review:
Essays on a Human-Centered Planet”…..
IS HIS BEST BOOK….
It’s OUTSTANDING- FANTASTIC- INFORMATIVE- MOVING - THOUGHT PROVOKING…..
I LOVED LOVED LOVED IT!!!
I will listen to this again. I look forward to it! I laughed, I got teary-eyed, and I continue to be in ‘awe’!!!
To miss a this gem… would be a shame—
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT TO EVERYONE!!!
John Green reads his own book with so much heart —
we need a new definition to the word heart!
I have pages of notes…. but I’m going to hold back sharing them as tempting as it for me.
I could be too much of a a gem-give-a-way- chatterbox.
I’m trying to discipline myself here —holding back my tongue.
GO IN BLIND….
Regardless of how wonderful reviews are— no matter how descriptive, and thoughtful they are, this is a book that simply has to be experienced.
AFTER taking one’s own turn reading it — there are themes, topics, issues, thoughts, feelings that are soooooo worth discussing with others who have read it.
But don’t cheat ‘yourself’ ….
Trust this book is worthy to be read!! ( listening was an added treat)…. but I’d like to own the physical book,
and read it too.
Great book club pick!!
5 stars for sunsets 🌅
5 ++++++++ and more stars for John Green and this wonderful gift he gave us.
…..10 hours and 3 minutes
Nothing prepared me for how wonderful this book is.
I’m thrilled that I own it. Paul listen to parts, and now he wants his own copy on ‘his’ phone.
I haven’t had so much enjoyment learning about trivial things that are not really trivial but may be trivial things from an audiobook as much as this one.
And I haven’t thought about the really important issues of life — like this — (to my awareness) either.
I’ve always liked John Green….
I like his young adult books….
But my god…
“The Anthropocene Review:
Essays on a Human-Centered Planet”…..
IS HIS BEST BOOK….
It’s OUTSTANDING- FANTASTIC- INFORMATIVE- MOVING - THOUGHT PROVOKING…..
I LOVED LOVED LOVED IT!!!
I will listen to this again. I look forward to it! I laughed, I got teary-eyed, and I continue to be in ‘awe’!!!
To miss a this gem… would be a shame—
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT TO EVERYONE!!!
John Green reads his own book with so much heart —
we need a new definition to the word heart!
I have pages of notes…. but I’m going to hold back sharing them as tempting as it for me.
I could be too much of a a gem-give-a-way- chatterbox.
I’m trying to discipline myself here —holding back my tongue.
GO IN BLIND….
Regardless of how wonderful reviews are— no matter how descriptive, and thoughtful they are, this is a book that simply has to be experienced.
AFTER taking one’s own turn reading it — there are themes, topics, issues, thoughts, feelings that are soooooo worth discussing with others who have read it.
But don’t cheat ‘yourself’ ….
Trust this book is worthy to be read!! ( listening was an added treat)…. but I’d like to own the physical book,
and read it too.
Great book club pick!!
5 stars for sunsets 🌅
5 ++++++++ and more stars for John Green and this wonderful gift he gave us.
May 19, 2021
I loved this so fucking much. Apparently non-fiction essays were what I needed to rekindle my love for John Green’s writing. Through reviews of different facets of the world he tells stories of his own life, inventions, human connections, loneliness, mental health, living through a pandemic, and so much more.
Some of the aspects of his writing that I started to not appreciate so much in his YA novels definitely work better here in adult non-fiction. His worldview, use of quotes, and deep musings sometimes seemed a bit much for all of his teenage characters, but coming directly from him I really enjoyed it. I hope he publishes more non-fiction in the future because this book was phenomenal.
I definitely recommend checking this one out. The reviews are short but impactful and flow like you’re reading a piece of fiction. This is a really special book and one that I know I’m going to continue to revisit in the future.
Some of the aspects of his writing that I started to not appreciate so much in his YA novels definitely work better here in adult non-fiction. His worldview, use of quotes, and deep musings sometimes seemed a bit much for all of his teenage characters, but coming directly from him I really enjoyed it. I hope he publishes more non-fiction in the future because this book was phenomenal.
I definitely recommend checking this one out. The reviews are short but impactful and flow like you’re reading a piece of fiction. This is a really special book and one that I know I’m going to continue to revisit in the future.
July 21, 2021
4.5/5. Such a ✨ soft ✨ book, I loved it.
John Green gave this review 4 out of 5 stars.
John Green gave this review 4 out of 5 stars.
November 30, 2021
A collection of essays about the most random things: air conditioners (this one I actually enjoyed a lot), hot dog stands, canada geese, notes app, etc (that I really did not care about).
It felt like a strange mix of factual information mixed with personal experiences. I fail to properly categorize this as an informative non-fiction or memoir. John Green uses so many quotes (the ones from Kurt Vonnegut I loved, but then I would rather just read something by Kurt Vonnegut) and thus it felt like I was just reading a collection of what others have said - resulting in a generic reading experience.
I also might have outgrown John Green, not really caring too much about his opinions (sorry). I really had to force myself to get through this, and had it not been for the audiobook version I may not have finished it.
I give this book 2 stars.
what better way to end the year than learning as much as you can about the world? (aka a non-fiction/memoir marathon)
❄ the anthropocene reviewed
It felt like a strange mix of factual information mixed with personal experiences. I fail to properly categorize this as an informative non-fiction or memoir. John Green uses so many quotes (the ones from Kurt Vonnegut I loved, but then I would rather just read something by Kurt Vonnegut) and thus it felt like I was just reading a collection of what others have said - resulting in a generic reading experience.
I also might have outgrown John Green, not really caring too much about his opinions (sorry). I really had to force myself to get through this, and had it not been for the audiobook version I may not have finished it.
I give this book 2 stars.
what better way to end the year than learning as much as you can about the world? (aka a non-fiction/memoir marathon)
❄ the anthropocene reviewed
October 18, 2024
I saw this book a few times and finally discovered it in Goodreads CHOICE AWARDS Best Nonfiction Winner.
One of the best parts I like in this book is as follows:
"Believe".
My friend Amy Krouse Rosenthal once told me to look at the word and be awed by it. See how it contains both be and live. We were eating lunch together, and after telling me about how much she liked the word believe, the conversation drifted off toward family or work, and then out of nowhere, she said, "Believe! Be live! What a word!"
Be and Live.
I will recommend reading this book and it can improve a lot of common sense and knowledge in our world.
One of the best parts I like in this book is as follows:
"Believe".
My friend Amy Krouse Rosenthal once told me to look at the word and be awed by it. See how it contains both be and live. We were eating lunch together, and after telling me about how much she liked the word believe, the conversation drifted off toward family or work, and then out of nowhere, she said, "Believe! Be live! What a word!"
Be and Live.
I will recommend reading this book and it can improve a lot of common sense and knowledge in our world.
July 3, 2021
Note: Rounded up to five stars because John literally reviewed the font in the copyright section in his own book.
“We all know how loving ends. But I want to fall in love with the world anyway, to let it crack me open. I want to feel what there is to feel while I am here.”
Short chapters/essays, but very entertaining, educational, and thought-provoking, The essay topics range broadly all the way from Air Conditioning to Sunsets, and even The Penguins of Madagascar. John ties the history of the topics with his own personal experience and connections to show an appreciation for the mundane world around us. Very vulnerable and human. I give The Anthropocene Reviewed four and a half stars.
“We all know how loving ends. But I want to fall in love with the world anyway, to let it crack me open. I want to feel what there is to feel while I am here.”
Short chapters/essays, but very entertaining, educational, and thought-provoking, The essay topics range broadly all the way from Air Conditioning to Sunsets, and even The Penguins of Madagascar. John ties the history of the topics with his own personal experience and connections to show an appreciation for the mundane world around us. Very vulnerable and human. I give The Anthropocene Reviewed four and a half stars.
July 25, 2022
oh john green.... how could i not give this book five stars?
for a non-ficiton book written during the pandemic, even at several times ABOUT the pandemic, i was expecting this to be a lot more dismal. there were so many things about this that i liked: the short chapters that were good to devour a few at a time, and come back to it at a later time. the book was just as informative as it was meditative. but most of all, i love that this book had an optimistic, hopeful tone that didn't at all come off as manufactured or contrived.
i can definitely see myself revisiting this down the road (and getting to re-experience all my favorite quotes that i tabbed, which was plentiful), and i'm sure the audiobook would be a great avenue for that.
for a non-ficiton book written during the pandemic, even at several times ABOUT the pandemic, i was expecting this to be a lot more dismal. there were so many things about this that i liked: the short chapters that were good to devour a few at a time, and come back to it at a later time. the book was just as informative as it was meditative. but most of all, i love that this book had an optimistic, hopeful tone that didn't at all come off as manufactured or contrived.
i can definitely see myself revisiting this down the road (and getting to re-experience all my favorite quotes that i tabbed, which was plentiful), and i'm sure the audiobook would be a great avenue for that.
July 29, 2021
I mean…sure? This is a collection of personal essays by John Green in which he basically just ponders humanity and rambles endlessly about arbitrary topics like scratch-and-sniff stickers, air conditioning, and the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. It’s pretentious with a sparse sprinkling of insight here and there. I found myself thinking, who cares multiple times throughout the book. I am flabbergasted by the high ratings for this. His target audience is without a doubt, people who already love him. Unfortunately, I am not one of those people so this is a no from me.
December 8, 2024
On a site that reviews books on a five-star scale, I am going to review a book that is a collection of quite personal essays masquerading as reviews of random things from everyday life rated on a five-star scale. Yeah, I know.
The range of topics here is quite expansive, with Anthropocene in the title allowing the focus - or at least the springboard of each piece - to be pretty much anything. Our capacity for wonder, humanity temporal range, diet Dr Pepper, velociraptors, teddy bears, sunsets, Green’s favorite band, air conditioning, Indy 500, Canada geese, Scratch ’n’ Sniff stickers, Kentucky bluegrass, Lascaux Cave Paintings, Indianapolis (“You gotta live somewhere”) — you name it, Green wrote about it here. And then rated it on the five-star scale.
Before I forget, let me bring up my grievance here. Diet Dr Pepper, “the soda that tastes more like the Anthropocene than any other”, according to Green, is rated higher than Jurassic Park velociraptors. I mean, on one hand we have the concoction that tastes like pure evil had a baby with indigestion medicine. On the other hand there are velociraptors that can open locked doors in the most pants-shittingly terrifying way, even if they are modeled on a species completely different than chicken-like raptors just because “velociraptor” sounded infinitely cooler as a name for these ruthless predators. But even the chicken version of velociraptor beats Dr Pepper, diet or otherwise, any time.
Green’s essays can be a bit of a hit or miss for me, mostly depending whether I care at all about things he writes about, often seeming almost like a Wikipedia article (into the depth of which I’ve been known to get lost for hours at a time) but one thing the man can certainly do is spin a quotable phrase.
There’s nothing like listening to an essay on Canada geese while walking by a lake and hopping around the prodigious excrement output of those geese while carefully trying to stay out of the way of particularly irritable-looking ones. On my long nature walks Canada geese and I maintain an uneasy state of mutual neutrality, meaning they kindly refrain from eating me alive and I maintain a small degree of healthy caution at all. (Hey, I was treed as a small kid by an angry rooster, and those geese can act way angrier).
Green is quite candid in these essays, not hiding his struggles with anxiety and depression, and brings in an interesting combination of pessimism and optimism, often within the same passage, with a hefty dose of irony interspersed with soft humor and occasional quite pointed observations.
I quite liked a few of these essays — unexpectedly one on viral meningitis, the awful experience that apparently I had in common with Green. The guy understands the blinding incapacitating pain of a true headache that makes you wish you were dead instead.
————
Some essays I really enjoyed; the others I listened to without them leaving any memorable impression on me. I suppose it’s the pitfall of such a hodgepodge collection — you can’t connect with it all. But overall it was good, even though I’m still unhappy about velociraptors ranking below diet Dr Pepper.
So I give this collection of reviews about random things in our world 3.5 stars.
——————
Also posted on my blog.
“It has taken me all my life up to now to fall in love with the world, but I’ve started to feel it the last couple of years. To fall in love with the world isn’t to ignore or overlook suffering, both human and otherwise. For me anyway, to fall in love with the world is to look up at the night sky and feel your mind swim before the beauty and the distance of the stars. It is to hold your children while they cry, to watch as the sycamore trees leaf out in June. When my breastbone starts to hurt, and my throat tightens, and tears well in my eyes, I want to look away from feeling. I want to deflect with irony, or anything else that will keep me from feeling directly. We all know how loving ends. But I want to fall in love with the world anyway, to let it crack me open. I want to feel what there is to feel while I am here.”
The range of topics here is quite expansive, with Anthropocene in the title allowing the focus - or at least the springboard of each piece - to be pretty much anything. Our capacity for wonder, humanity temporal range, diet Dr Pepper, velociraptors, teddy bears, sunsets, Green’s favorite band, air conditioning, Indy 500, Canada geese, Scratch ’n’ Sniff stickers, Kentucky bluegrass, Lascaux Cave Paintings, Indianapolis (“You gotta live somewhere”) — you name it, Green wrote about it here. And then rated it on the five-star scale.
“We live in hope—that life will get better, and more importantly that it will go on, that love will survive even though we will not. And between now and then, we are here because we’re here because we’re here because we’re here.”
(From “Auld Lang Syne”)
Before I forget, let me bring up my grievance here. Diet Dr Pepper, “the soda that tastes more like the Anthropocene than any other”, according to Green, is rated higher than Jurassic Park velociraptors. I mean, on one hand we have the concoction that tastes like pure evil had a baby with indigestion medicine. On the other hand there are velociraptors that can open locked doors in the most pants-shittingly terrifying way, even if they are modeled on a species completely different than chicken-like raptors just because “velociraptor” sounded infinitely cooler as a name for these ruthless predators. But even the chicken version of velociraptor beats Dr Pepper, diet or otherwise, any time.
“In fact, the first time I remember hearing my brother, Hank, curse came as we were watching Jurassic Park. When the velociraptors turned the door handle, I heard my ten-year-old brother mutter, “Oh, shit.”
Green’s essays can be a bit of a hit or miss for me, mostly depending whether I care at all about things he writes about, often seeming almost like a Wikipedia article (into the depth of which I’ve been known to get lost for hours at a time) but one thing the man can certainly do is spin a quotable phrase.
“We’re the only part of the known universe that knows it’s in a universe. We know we are circling a star that will one day engulf us. We’re the only species that knows it has a temporal range.”
(From “Humanity’s Temporal Range”)
———
“When you measure time in Halleys rather than years, history starts to look different. As the comet visited us in 1986, my dad brought home a personal computer—the first in our neighborhood. One Halley earlier, the first movie adaptation of Frankenstein was released. The Halley before that, Charles Darwin was aboard the HMS Beagle. The Halley before that, the United States wasn’t a country. The Halley before that, Louis XIV ruled France.”
(From “Halley’s Comet”)
There’s nothing like listening to an essay on Canada geese while walking by a lake and hopping around the prodigious excrement output of those geese while carefully trying to stay out of the way of particularly irritable-looking ones. On my long nature walks Canada geese and I maintain an uneasy state of mutual neutrality, meaning they kindly refrain from eating me alive and I maintain a small degree of healthy caution at all. (Hey, I was treed as a small kid by an angry rooster, and those geese can act way angrier).
“A single Canada goose can produce up to one hundred pounds of excrement per year, which has led to unsafe E. coli levels in lakes and ponds where they gather.”
Green is quite candid in these essays, not hiding his struggles with anxiety and depression, and brings in an interesting combination of pessimism and optimism, often within the same passage, with a hefty dose of irony interspersed with soft humor and occasional quite pointed observations.
“For many species of large animals in the twenty-first century, the single most important determinant of survival is whether their existence is useful to humans. But if you can’t be of utility to people, the second best thing you can be is cute. You need an expressive face, ideally some large eyes. Your babies need to remind us of our babies. Something about you must make us feel guilty for eliminating you from the planet.”
I quite liked a few of these essays — unexpectedly one on viral meningitis, the awful experience that apparently I had in common with Green. The guy understands the blinding incapacitating pain of a true headache that makes you wish you were dead instead.
“I can tell you that having meningitis involves headaches, but that does little to communicate the consciousness-crushing omnipresence of that headache. All I can say is that when I had viral meningitis, I had a headache that made it impossible to have anything else. My head didn’t hurt so much as my self had been rendered inert by the pain in my head.”
————
Some essays I really enjoyed; the others I listened to without them leaving any memorable impression on me. I suppose it’s the pitfall of such a hodgepodge collection — you can’t connect with it all. But overall it was good, even though I’m still unhappy about velociraptors ranking below diet Dr Pepper.
So I give this collection of reviews about random things in our world 3.5 stars.
——————
Also posted on my blog.
August 10, 2022
4 stars!
I have to admit, when I found out John Green was releasing an adult nonfiction book, my very first thought was “I’m not smart enough to read it”. And then I found out the book was a collection of essays about the current geologic age and I was immediately relieved because I knew I could handle that. I listened to the audiobook which is narrated by Green and I thought it was fantastic. We got to hear all his thoughts and insights as he intended and it was a great experience.
So many topics were covered in this book, everything from dinosaurs, to a feud with a creature in his garden, to feelings about living in a pandemic. When I was listening I experienced a range of emotions. There were so many times when I was laughing out loud, and one time when I teared up. I think this is a really excellent book and I can see myself recommending it to a lot of people.
I give this book 4 stars.
I have to admit, when I found out John Green was releasing an adult nonfiction book, my very first thought was “I’m not smart enough to read it”. And then I found out the book was a collection of essays about the current geologic age and I was immediately relieved because I knew I could handle that. I listened to the audiobook which is narrated by Green and I thought it was fantastic. We got to hear all his thoughts and insights as he intended and it was a great experience.
So many topics were covered in this book, everything from dinosaurs, to a feud with a creature in his garden, to feelings about living in a pandemic. When I was listening I experienced a range of emotions. There were so many times when I was laughing out loud, and one time when I teared up. I think this is a really excellent book and I can see myself recommending it to a lot of people.
I give this book 4 stars.
June 10, 2021
This turned out to be a great choice for my bedtime book. John Green writes YA books, most notably "The Fault In Our Stars", which was also a popular movie. I read that one during my years at B&N to stay abreast of the teen section, and liked it a lot, though YA is not my favorite genre. It was an emotional novel about two cancer patients who fall in love during their therapy, so of course it was sad in parts, but also well written and not sappy.
This is his first foray into writing for adults, based on a podcast of the same name he co-hosts with his brother. The Anthropocene is our present day era, so each essay takes some aspect of our society important to him, good or bad, he explains it, dissects it, then gives it a star rating between 1 and 5 at the end. My explanation makes it sound dull, and it's not at all. It's uplifting and inspiring and informative in the best way, as his subjects are eclectic and very personal to him.
Each essay was easily read in the time it took for me to nod off, sometimes 2 or 3 of them. Green is everything I look for in an essay writer, funny, honest, descriptive, and able to make obscure thoughts clear and understandable. I consider E.B. White a master of the essay, and Green is right up there with him. I hope this isn't the last of the Anthropocene collection, as there is no end of subjects to write about.
Recommended to everyone, teens included.
This is his first foray into writing for adults, based on a podcast of the same name he co-hosts with his brother. The Anthropocene is our present day era, so each essay takes some aspect of our society important to him, good or bad, he explains it, dissects it, then gives it a star rating between 1 and 5 at the end. My explanation makes it sound dull, and it's not at all. It's uplifting and inspiring and informative in the best way, as his subjects are eclectic and very personal to him.
Each essay was easily read in the time it took for me to nod off, sometimes 2 or 3 of them. Green is everything I look for in an essay writer, funny, honest, descriptive, and able to make obscure thoughts clear and understandable. I consider E.B. White a master of the essay, and Green is right up there with him. I hope this isn't the last of the Anthropocene collection, as there is no end of subjects to write about.
Recommended to everyone, teens included.
January 14, 2022
My first one star of the year arrived earlier than I would have wished. John Green's schtick in trying very, very hard to come across as a thoughtful, humble, wonderstruck guy does not fly with yours truly.
I know how nice guys think, and John Green is not a pukka nice guy. He is very good at pretending to be one, and has polished his trade, both in terms of writing and also socialising, to a perfection I can only dream of.
Nevertheless, apart from 3 or 4 'essays' if such short on substance and formatting can be called that, the book didn't work for me. I DNFed it. I had also DNFed another book, L'ombre jaune, by Henri Vernes, who has been a worse writer than Green, but also had a better life than him.
But I had to register this book before I forgot its existence. This book is as forgettable as New Coke's taste, and as ignorable as the tissue paper one gets from the KFC near where I live.
The Greens, I will watch you on Tuesday, because your internet presence, unfunny often as it is, is much more welcome in my house than your books.
I know how nice guys think, and John Green is not a pukka nice guy. He is very good at pretending to be one, and has polished his trade, both in terms of writing and also socialising, to a perfection I can only dream of.
Nevertheless, apart from 3 or 4 'essays' if such short on substance and formatting can be called that, the book didn't work for me. I DNFed it. I had also DNFed another book, L'ombre jaune, by Henri Vernes, who has been a worse writer than Green, but also had a better life than him.
But I had to register this book before I forgot its existence. This book is as forgettable as New Coke's taste, and as ignorable as the tissue paper one gets from the KFC near where I live.
The Greens, I will watch you on Tuesday, because your internet presence, unfunny often as it is, is much more welcome in my house than your books.
Shelved as 'dnf'
September 4, 2021Wow! John Green must have spent A LOT of time watching Nat Geo and wiki-ing. So have I. I wish I had his conviction of a white rich man to spin all the trivia I know into a series of banal and sappy essays where I talk like I am an expert on every thing in this world via reciting easily googlable factoids. But alas, I have a full-time job.
John Green's following is still strong, judging by the average rating of this drivel. I can understand why kids would be impressed by it, but I am stunned this is an adult book?
John Green's following is still strong, judging by the average rating of this drivel. I can understand why kids would be impressed by it, but I am stunned this is an adult book?
August 19, 2021
The inherent and possibly intentional ridiculousness of having to write a review for this whole book is hilarious— and stupid. It's a truly, freely, un-ironic, heart-felt examination of what we love, how we love it, and who we love it with. It's humanity reviewed, renewed, examined and explained. The final "chapters" are almost entirely memoir, reflecting John's own participation in The Anthropocene. It's contemporary and classic and entirely, totally timely. It's the best, calmest, most responsible response to this hellish, extended age of lockdown and uncertainty. Hope may be the thing with feathers, but John Green is the giver of that hope.
I give this book five stars.
I give this book five stars.
July 31, 2021
“We all know how loving ends. But I want to fall in love with the world anyway, to let it crack me open. I want to feel what there is to feel while I am here.”
I got sort of sick of John Green's YA novel voice--his clever boarding school witticisms, his quirky wise-cracking heroes that all sound alike, but knew I had to listen to John Green's actual voice reading this book, as I read many books on climate change and the Anthropocene, most of them grim and frightening. I find in this book that like me, Green is near despair about the state of the world, but chooses hope. Green is maybe as well know for his Vlog Brothers podcast with his brother Hank as his YA, though The Fault in Our Stars, about a romance between two adolescents with cancer, was clearly an international sensation. I have seen some of his podcasts, and understand that most of this book is culled from those podcasts.
I wanted to see how a clever guy like Green would approach the End of the World as We know It. Would he make light of it in some way? But Green goes the way of science as he talks of his own serious illnesses, his OCD, his depression, and tries to balance those traumas with his love of his wife and kids and so many nerdy relatable topics as to make any casual reader think he really is making silly asides to distract us from our global traumas.
Green jumps from topic to topic that he has become obsessed about and connects them to the Anthropocene in seemingly whimsical, meandering trips through: Halley's Comet, the Lascaux Cave Paintings, Air-Conditioning, The Yips, Monopoly, Hiroyuki Doi's Circle Drawings and Penguins of Madagascar, rating them along the way consistent with the five star rating system he also identifies as ubiquitous in our age.
"I am thoughtful—full of thoughts, all the time, inescapably, exhaustingly."
Green weaves in truly frightening science about the times we are living in, from Covid to Cholera and The Plague, so he is not using any topic to merely escape. Monopoly is a game about capitalism, a warning, for instance. Are you worried about the remaining freshwater resources on the planet? One third of the drinkable, freshwater usage in the US goes to watering lawns (time for this practice to end? I say so, but have said so for fifty years).
The most moving and heart-breaking couple of essays are about his OCD obsession with signing over 400 thousand copies to slip into copies of Fault, to calm himself (as Doi did circles), and the story of the last recording, in 1987, of the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō, a bird now extinct for decades. Since we have the podcast and this audiocast, Green plays this call, which begs for a response from a mate but of course hears none:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2KH5...
I listened to this book during the week when my friend Ann came to my comics class, which I actually zoomed from Grand Lake, at the western entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park, seeing for the first time the devastation of the two worst forest fires in Colorado history (that came perilously close--eleven miles--to joining forces and doing even more damage). This is one of the most beautiful places on the planet, where we saw herds of elk, deer, moose, and gorgeous landscapes somewhat obscured by the smoke from million acre fires in Oregon and California. The last time I was here, three years ago, at my sister's cabin, we also breathed that western forest fire smoke as we hiked here.
Here we see the place in the Columbine area of Grand Lake where fifty+ homes burned to the ground and some are being rebuilt, where a now blackened landscape with sentinel trees bearing testimony to climate devastation, and new grasses and flowers at the same time. Trauma is my theme of this little road trip, and recovery, the things we do as John Green has done to hold on to life and laughter and love. Such as the families we bring together on this trip.
One of my sons witnessed with his own eyes, just before we left on this trip, a man mutilated by a train. He was literally feet from this killing, as he came home from a Chicago Fire again. He will never in his life unsee that, this his trauma (and the trauma of the man's family and friends, of course!). But hen e came to the door we gave him a big family group hug, and we are supporting him.
My friend Ann is the survivor of four different kinds of cancer--real and lasting trauma of various kinds--and I am helping her develop and publish a graphic memoir about it. She came to my class and told us she does stand-up and has never cried in all of this time. I don't have time for that, she says. My class loved her and will be part of making this book happen.
Again, trauma and art as hope, as Green makes clear in his book, which made me kind of fall in love with the clever nerd Green all over again.
“For me, finding hope is not some philosophical exercise or sentimental notion; it is a prerequisite for my survival.”
Great audiobook, great podcast essays, great message. One of my favorite books of the year, that I highly recommend.
I got sort of sick of John Green's YA novel voice--his clever boarding school witticisms, his quirky wise-cracking heroes that all sound alike, but knew I had to listen to John Green's actual voice reading this book, as I read many books on climate change and the Anthropocene, most of them grim and frightening. I find in this book that like me, Green is near despair about the state of the world, but chooses hope. Green is maybe as well know for his Vlog Brothers podcast with his brother Hank as his YA, though The Fault in Our Stars, about a romance between two adolescents with cancer, was clearly an international sensation. I have seen some of his podcasts, and understand that most of this book is culled from those podcasts.
I wanted to see how a clever guy like Green would approach the End of the World as We know It. Would he make light of it in some way? But Green goes the way of science as he talks of his own serious illnesses, his OCD, his depression, and tries to balance those traumas with his love of his wife and kids and so many nerdy relatable topics as to make any casual reader think he really is making silly asides to distract us from our global traumas.
Green jumps from topic to topic that he has become obsessed about and connects them to the Anthropocene in seemingly whimsical, meandering trips through: Halley's Comet, the Lascaux Cave Paintings, Air-Conditioning, The Yips, Monopoly, Hiroyuki Doi's Circle Drawings and Penguins of Madagascar, rating them along the way consistent with the five star rating system he also identifies as ubiquitous in our age.
"I am thoughtful—full of thoughts, all the time, inescapably, exhaustingly."
Green weaves in truly frightening science about the times we are living in, from Covid to Cholera and The Plague, so he is not using any topic to merely escape. Monopoly is a game about capitalism, a warning, for instance. Are you worried about the remaining freshwater resources on the planet? One third of the drinkable, freshwater usage in the US goes to watering lawns (time for this practice to end? I say so, but have said so for fifty years).
The most moving and heart-breaking couple of essays are about his OCD obsession with signing over 400 thousand copies to slip into copies of Fault, to calm himself (as Doi did circles), and the story of the last recording, in 1987, of the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō, a bird now extinct for decades. Since we have the podcast and this audiocast, Green plays this call, which begs for a response from a mate but of course hears none:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2KH5...
I listened to this book during the week when my friend Ann came to my comics class, which I actually zoomed from Grand Lake, at the western entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park, seeing for the first time the devastation of the two worst forest fires in Colorado history (that came perilously close--eleven miles--to joining forces and doing even more damage). This is one of the most beautiful places on the planet, where we saw herds of elk, deer, moose, and gorgeous landscapes somewhat obscured by the smoke from million acre fires in Oregon and California. The last time I was here, three years ago, at my sister's cabin, we also breathed that western forest fire smoke as we hiked here.
Here we see the place in the Columbine area of Grand Lake where fifty+ homes burned to the ground and some are being rebuilt, where a now blackened landscape with sentinel trees bearing testimony to climate devastation, and new grasses and flowers at the same time. Trauma is my theme of this little road trip, and recovery, the things we do as John Green has done to hold on to life and laughter and love. Such as the families we bring together on this trip.
One of my sons witnessed with his own eyes, just before we left on this trip, a man mutilated by a train. He was literally feet from this killing, as he came home from a Chicago Fire again. He will never in his life unsee that, this his trauma (and the trauma of the man's family and friends, of course!). But hen e came to the door we gave him a big family group hug, and we are supporting him.
My friend Ann is the survivor of four different kinds of cancer--real and lasting trauma of various kinds--and I am helping her develop and publish a graphic memoir about it. She came to my class and told us she does stand-up and has never cried in all of this time. I don't have time for that, she says. My class loved her and will be part of making this book happen.
Again, trauma and art as hope, as Green makes clear in his book, which made me kind of fall in love with the clever nerd Green all over again.
“For me, finding hope is not some philosophical exercise or sentimental notion; it is a prerequisite for my survival.”
Great audiobook, great podcast essays, great message. One of my favorite books of the year, that I highly recommend.
April 8, 2022
⭐️❤️BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR⭐️❤️
I've seen a lot of books lately with gorgeous, inviting, colorful covers. John Green's The Anthropocene Reviewed is just that, and when I saw it was a sort of autobiographical non-fiction by The Fault in the Stars author, I decided to give it a read.
Wow! This guy knows A LOT. He gets sick with some sort of inner ear issue during COVID and decides to write down his rambling thoughts while on bed rest for six weeks. When I say random, I mean random; the world's largest ball of paint, whispering, Monopoly, the yips. Yeah, it was a wonderful smorgasbord of thoughts.
John Green--living the Midwest suburbia life, recanting his obsession with scratch and sniff stickers, the finite taste of root beer, and college angst mixed with cigarettes. I mean this was JUST the book I needed.
Green has an art for writing, and even the most mundane topics like air-conditioning are interesting and well thought out. His chapter on sunset was so poignant, that I could feel his words tumbling off the page and onto my moments of solitude and sunsets.
I can't say enough about this book; t was just right, perfect, and positive.
It’s fitting to rate/review this book on Goodreads because Green professes the modern age is defined by ratings. Every random idea he discusses ends with a rating on a scale.
I choose to give Green 4 stars for wonderful writing, and an extra star for keeping me engaged with every topic.
Wow!! Just saw this was the winner of Goodreads nonfiction- well deserved.
I've seen a lot of books lately with gorgeous, inviting, colorful covers. John Green's The Anthropocene Reviewed is just that, and when I saw it was a sort of autobiographical non-fiction by The Fault in the Stars author, I decided to give it a read.
Wow! This guy knows A LOT. He gets sick with some sort of inner ear issue during COVID and decides to write down his rambling thoughts while on bed rest for six weeks. When I say random, I mean random; the world's largest ball of paint, whispering, Monopoly, the yips. Yeah, it was a wonderful smorgasbord of thoughts.
John Green--living the Midwest suburbia life, recanting his obsession with scratch and sniff stickers, the finite taste of root beer, and college angst mixed with cigarettes. I mean this was JUST the book I needed.
Green has an art for writing, and even the most mundane topics like air-conditioning are interesting and well thought out. His chapter on sunset was so poignant, that I could feel his words tumbling off the page and onto my moments of solitude and sunsets.
I can't say enough about this book; t was just right, perfect, and positive.
It’s fitting to rate/review this book on Goodreads because Green professes the modern age is defined by ratings. Every random idea he discusses ends with a rating on a scale.
I choose to give Green 4 stars for wonderful writing, and an extra star for keeping me engaged with every topic.
Wow!! Just saw this was the winner of Goodreads nonfiction- well deserved.
September 14, 2021
This book wasn’t terrible by any means, it just wasn’t for me. In my opinion, John Green did not offer me anything new or interesting to reflect on in his own reflections about our current moment and era. I found a lot of the essays to be either boring or very run-of-the-mill observations that literally any liberal-minded writer could have written.
I did enjoy learning about some stories or facts I previously didn’t know about, though. And I did personally relate to and agree with a lot of his observations, reflections, and opinions on different topics of humanity. I think I was just expecting something a little more profound than an echo chamber of my current mindset when I decided to start listening to this audiobook.
However, with that said, I think this book will be great for readers who haven’t previously embraced the contemporary frame of mind that I’ve come to learn and recognize as “optimistic nihilism” (from an old Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell video on YouTube) and that I’ve also noticed has become increasingly popular within the culture over the last couple of years. Life is ultimately meaningless in the grand scheme of the universe, but that’s precisely why life is beautiful and worth living. We get to continually create our own meaning out of it.
It feels oddly cringy and meta to review this book of reviews but I, unfortunately, give this book 2.5 stars.
I did enjoy learning about some stories or facts I previously didn’t know about, though. And I did personally relate to and agree with a lot of his observations, reflections, and opinions on different topics of humanity. I think I was just expecting something a little more profound than an echo chamber of my current mindset when I decided to start listening to this audiobook.
However, with that said, I think this book will be great for readers who haven’t previously embraced the contemporary frame of mind that I’ve come to learn and recognize as “optimistic nihilism” (from an old Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell video on YouTube) and that I’ve also noticed has become increasingly popular within the culture over the last couple of years. Life is ultimately meaningless in the grand scheme of the universe, but that’s precisely why life is beautiful and worth living. We get to continually create our own meaning out of it.
It feels oddly cringy and meta to review this book of reviews but I, unfortunately, give this book 2.5 stars.
March 20, 2022
Certaines chroniques moins intéressantes que d’autres mais dans l’ensemble très très bien écrit!! Ça vaut la peine et ça fait changement
August 28, 2021
یک ماه پیش وقتی که مثل اکثر آدمهای این روزها، به خاطر حجم اخبار بد، جهش ویروس کرونا، ناامیدی و... افسردگی و پنیک اتک و اضطرابم به بیشترین حد ممکن رسیده بود، برای پیدا کردن ذرهای امید و حال خوب رفتم سرال کتاب Notes on a Nervous Planet.
کتابی که به خاطر سطحی بودنش و نثر نه چندان گیراش، هیچ دردی از حالم دوا نکرد.
تا اینکه اتفاقی و به پیشنهاد یکی از دوستای جدید گودریدزیم کتاب The Anthropocene Reviewed رو، بدون اینکه من حتی بدونم در مورد چی هست شروع کردیم. فقط میدونستم مجموعهای از جستارهاست که جان گرین نوشته.
جان گرین و خیلی ساله میشناسم. کتابهاش و فیلمهای اقتباس شده از روی اونا رو هيچوقت دوست نداشتم ولی چند سالی بود که ویدئوهای کانال یوتیوب خودش و برادرش و می���دیدم و به نظرم بر خلاف کتابهای داستانیش، یکی از جالبترین آدمهای روی زمینه.
ذوق داشتم و کنجکاو بودم که ببینم جان گرین تو فرمت ناداستان قراره برام دلنشین باشه یا نه.
با همین افکار شروع کردم به خوندن مقدمه کتاب. باورم نمیشد تو همون ۱۰ صفحه یه بار بلند بلند خندیدم و بالافاصله بعدش گریه کردم. از همون لحظه فهمیدم که این کتاب یه کتاب ۵ ستارست.
جان گرین سالهاست با افسردگی و mental heath issues داره دست و پنجه نرم میکنه و فکر کنم این از اکثر کتابهاش هم معلوم باشه. اما برخلاف بقیه کتابهاش، اینجا مستقیم بهشون پرداخته و از تجربه خودش حرف میزنه. یکی از عوامل مهم حال نه چندان خوبش هم ترس از مرگ و با این حال زندگی تو یه پاندمیه. برخلاف کتاب Notes on a Nervous Planet هیچ راه حلی ارائه نمیده. یا بهتره بگم هیچ راه حل کلیشهای ارائه نمیده. بلکه سر فرصت میشینه و با توصیفات بینظیر و نثر استثنایی از اینکه چجوری هنور امید داره، چجوری هنوز زندگی کردن و دوست داره و چجوری هنوز به نظرش انسانها با وجود این همه خرابی ارزشمند هستند، مینویسه.
و مشخصا جستارهایی که راجع به این قبیل موضوعات بود برای من هایلایت کتاب بودن، اما بقیه جستارها هم به همین اندازه از نبوغ سرشار جان بهرهمند شدن. من اصولا عاشق آدمهایی هستم که راجع به موضوعات به ظاهر بیاهمیت و روزانه، عمیق فکر میکنن و همیشه تو لیست کتابهایی که باید هرسال بخونم چندیدن تا از این نوع کتابا دارم. و جان گرین تا دلتون بخواد تو این کتاب راجع به همین موضوعات عمیق فکر کرده بود. ولی نه تنها خستهکننده و سنگین نبودن که به معنای واقعی کلمه charming بودن.
از نقاشیهای روی دیوار غار، نوشابه Dr. Pepper، کولر، اینترنت، سوپر ماریو کارت، شبکه سی ان ان و یه عالمه موضوع بامزه، مهم و عجیب دیگه حرف میزنه و من تو این مدت با تک تک این موضوعات، وقت مفید و باکیفیت گذروندم.
به نظرم به خودتون و ذهنتون یه لطفی بکنید و حتا شده روزی یکی از این جستارها رو بخونید. بهتون قول میدم حالتون یه عالمه بهتر میشه. برای من که مثل نور تو تاریکترین روزام بود.
کتابی که به خاطر سطحی بودنش و نثر نه چندان گیراش، هیچ دردی از حالم دوا نکرد.
تا اینکه اتفاقی و به پیشنهاد یکی از دوستای جدید گودریدزیم کتاب The Anthropocene Reviewed رو، بدون اینکه من حتی بدونم در مورد چی هست شروع کردیم. فقط میدونستم مجموعهای از جستارهاست که جان گرین نوشته.
جان گرین و خیلی ساله میشناسم. کتابهاش و فیلمهای اقتباس شده از روی اونا رو هيچوقت دوست نداشتم ولی چند سالی بود که ویدئوهای کانال یوتیوب خودش و برادرش و می���دیدم و به نظرم بر خلاف کتابهای داستانیش، یکی از جالبترین آدمهای روی زمینه.
ذوق داشتم و کنجکاو بودم که ببینم جان گرین تو فرمت ناداستان قراره برام دلنشین باشه یا نه.
با همین افکار شروع کردم به خوندن مقدمه کتاب. باورم نمیشد تو همون ۱۰ صفحه یه بار بلند بلند خندیدم و بالافاصله بعدش گریه کردم. از همون لحظه فهمیدم که این کتاب یه کتاب ۵ ستارست.
جان گرین سالهاست با افسردگی و mental heath issues داره دست و پنجه نرم میکنه و فکر کنم این از اکثر کتابهاش هم معلوم باشه. اما برخلاف بقیه کتابهاش، اینجا مستقیم بهشون پرداخته و از تجربه خودش حرف میزنه. یکی از عوامل مهم حال نه چندان خوبش هم ترس از مرگ و با این حال زندگی تو یه پاندمیه. برخلاف کتاب Notes on a Nervous Planet هیچ راه حلی ارائه نمیده. یا بهتره بگم هیچ راه حل کلیشهای ارائه نمیده. بلکه سر فرصت میشینه و با توصیفات بینظیر و نثر استثنایی از اینکه چجوری هنور امید داره، چجوری هنوز زندگی کردن و دوست داره و چجوری هنوز به نظرش انسانها با وجود این همه خرابی ارزشمند هستند، مینویسه.
و مشخصا جستارهایی که راجع به این قبیل موضوعات بود برای من هایلایت کتاب بودن، اما بقیه جستارها هم به همین اندازه از نبوغ سرشار جان بهرهمند شدن. من اصولا عاشق آدمهایی هستم که راجع به موضوعات به ظاهر بیاهمیت و روزانه، عمیق فکر میکنن و همیشه تو لیست کتابهایی که باید هرسال بخونم چندیدن تا از این نوع کتابا دارم. و جان گرین تا دلتون بخواد تو این کتاب راجع به همین موضوعات عمیق فکر کرده بود. ولی نه تنها خستهکننده و سنگین نبودن که به معنای واقعی کلمه charming بودن.
از نقاشیهای روی دیوار غار، نوشابه Dr. Pepper، کولر، اینترنت، سوپر ماریو کارت، شبکه سی ان ان و یه عالمه موضوع بامزه، مهم و عجیب دیگه حرف میزنه و من تو این مدت با تک تک این موضوعات، وقت مفید و باکیفیت گذروندم.
به نظرم به خودتون و ذهنتون یه لطفی بکنید و حتا شده روزی یکی از این جستارها رو بخونید. بهتون قول میدم حالتون یه عالمه بهتر میشه. برای من که مثل نور تو تاریکترین روزام بود.
September 20, 2022
oh if we could all be this vulnerable about our love and our grief for mundane things
May 25, 2022
This was not for me. At all.
It took me an entire month to slog through these essays about the meanderings of a middle aged white male author that thinks very highly of his opinions. While I think this started as a way to get through the pandemic and truly a fun project for him and his brother to take on a podcast about rating everything, I didn't need it.
He meanders so much, that he loses the focus on a 3 page essay that rambles into an entirely different topic. The entire book drove me nuts, and next time I should stick with my gut and not read things that don't appeal to me. I've never felt more mansplained in my life. In the words of John Green: I give The Anthropocene Reviewed 1 star.
It took me an entire month to slog through these essays about the meanderings of a middle aged white male author that thinks very highly of his opinions. While I think this started as a way to get through the pandemic and truly a fun project for him and his brother to take on a podcast about rating everything, I didn't need it.
He meanders so much, that he loses the focus on a 3 page essay that rambles into an entirely different topic. The entire book drove me nuts, and next time I should stick with my gut and not read things that don't appeal to me. I've never felt more mansplained in my life. In the words of John Green: I give The Anthropocene Reviewed 1 star.
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