You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.35 AVERAGE
3.35 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
The End of the End of the Earth is the perfect title. The tone of every essay here is both harshly pessimistic and concrete optimistic-- his optimism is shown by his real-world examples of how certain groups are fighting humanity out of this climate change mess, which he (rightly) concludes is humanity's most important problem.
If you're here for Franzen as a writer, you won't get much advice on that subject.
Another topic that unites these essays is the idea of a bucket list. He mocks them, yet remains fixated on his birds-seen bucket list. His birds-seen bucket list seem to drive all of his vacations.
This quote from my favorite essay, "The End of the End of the World" (Yeah, it's the essay title) sums the whole book up perfectly. That's probably why it's the title.
"The point was to experience penguins, be blown away by the scenery, make some new friends, add thirty-one bird species to my life list, and celebrate my uncle's memory."
Birds, people, scenery.
I read this essay twice. The first time I read it was online, and didn't remember that Franzen was the one who wrote it. I just remembered it because of how fantastic it was. You visit a really out-there locale (Antartica), he touches on a lot of themes and stories and people, and he sees a healthy amount of birds. There's so much here, including surprise revelations about himself and humanity that still felt like a surprise the second time around! And they still feel like a surprise even though there's so many themes and stories but then they just keep coming! It's deep yet still relatable for everyone. I found it easy to interpret but he still says themes outright if you miss something.
Franzen is truly for everyone. This further cemented him as one of my top favorite authors. A talented writer who really cares about humanity, animals, and life, and he wants to help you feel the same way he does.
If you're here for Franzen as a writer, you won't get much advice on that subject.
Another topic that unites these essays is the idea of a bucket list. He mocks them, yet remains fixated on his birds-seen bucket list. His birds-seen bucket list seem to drive all of his vacations.
This quote from my favorite essay, "The End of the End of the World" (Yeah, it's the essay title) sums the whole book up perfectly. That's probably why it's the title.
"The point was to experience penguins, be blown away by the scenery, make some new friends, add thirty-one bird species to my life list, and celebrate my uncle's memory."
Birds, people, scenery.
I read this essay twice. The first time I read it was online, and didn't remember that Franzen was the one who wrote it. I just remembered it because of how fantastic it was. You visit a really out-there locale (Antartica), he touches on a lot of themes and stories and people, and he sees a healthy amount of birds. There's so much here, including surprise revelations about himself and humanity that still felt like a surprise the second time around! And they still feel like a surprise even though there's so many themes and stories but then they just keep coming! It's deep yet still relatable for everyone. I found it easy to interpret but he still says themes outright if you miss something.
Franzen is truly for everyone. This further cemented him as one of my top favorite authors. A talented writer who really cares about humanity, animals, and life, and he wants to help you feel the same way he does.
dark
informative
medium-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
reflective
medium-paced
dark
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
So, I don't think I finished every essay in this collection. I didn't finish the one on Edith Wharton, I didn't finish one of the longer essays about traveling through exotic countries looking for birds. (There are a lot of essays about traveling through exotic countries looking for birds.)
The writing in this book is excellent. Franzen knows how to put together essays. But the content wasn't always for me. I love birds, but not a whole book of essays about birding.
I did appreciate Franzen's moral questioning about how to make a difference in the world. He struggles with the same questions I sometimes do. Is it better to work toward solving the biggest problems, even though my own contribution is hardly noticeable? Or is it better to solve the problems we can actually solve completely now, and see our progress? The answer, of course, is that both are important, but sometimes one jumps to the front.
I had some issues with Franzen's affluence. He seems to have issues with it too, which helps, but I still struggled with his passionate talk about climate change mixed in with travelogue after travelogue. I don't know, I'm a judgey-pants, what can I say?
The writing in this book is excellent. Franzen knows how to put together essays. But the content wasn't always for me. I love birds, but not a whole book of essays about birding.
I did appreciate Franzen's moral questioning about how to make a difference in the world. He struggles with the same questions I sometimes do. Is it better to work toward solving the biggest problems, even though my own contribution is hardly noticeable? Or is it better to solve the problems we can actually solve completely now, and see our progress? The answer, of course, is that both are important, but sometimes one jumps to the front.
I had some issues with Franzen's affluence. He seems to have issues with it too, which helps, but I still struggled with his passionate talk about climate change mixed in with travelogue after travelogue. I don't know, I'm a judgey-pants, what can I say?
DNF p122
Na de eerste paar essays braaf gelezen te hebben, ging ik steeds meer stukken overslaan, omdat ik het echt niet interessant vond. Ik had er meer van verwacht. Uiteindelijk ben ik toch maar gestopt, want ik lees liever een boek waar ik wel van kan genieten. Ik houd van vogels, maar ik kan geen zin meer lezen over het tellen of ‘verzamelen’ van vogels. Dit werd me echt veel te saai.
Na de eerste paar essays braaf gelezen te hebben, ging ik steeds meer stukken overslaan, omdat ik het echt niet interessant vond. Ik had er meer van verwacht. Uiteindelijk ben ik toch maar gestopt, want ik lees liever een boek waar ik wel van kan genieten. Ik houd van vogels, maar ik kan geen zin meer lezen over het tellen of ‘verzamelen’ van vogels. Dit werd me echt veel te saai.
This was a funish book. I lived near Santa Cruz starting in middle school and some time in high school I met the author for a pre signing for this second book freedom. I never finished that book there were to many sex scenes for my taste i was rather surprised my parents took me to see him. I said I would keep up with him and sadly haven’t, I saw this book came out and haven’t recently fallen back in love with essays so checked this book out. It’s a lot more about birds than I personally would have hoped for, my dad is a wildlife photographer and I have somewhat bad experiences waiting around for birds. I loved his imagery though and it was a great way at looking at how despite global warming being a threat humans pose a bigger danger to nature in so many other ways.