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A review by exteenawreads
The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
I give the Anthropocene Reviewed 100 out of 5 stars.
John Green has a way of speaking directly to my soul - picking at the smallest seemingly meaningless bits of life and dissecting them into the beautiful wonders that they are. I have been a huge fan since his books basically shaped my consciousness in middle school, and that he continues to dig his little fingers into my brain and massage it all around now that I am an old jaded adult, is truly miraculous.
The Anthropocene Reviewed essentially pokes fun at the need of modern humans to "rate" everything on a 5 star scale, from movies to restaurants to park benches. Each chapter focuses on a single subject, giving often a brief history, some introspection of how it relates to the human experience, and personal connections he has to the subject that has somehow affected his life. The subjects range from Canadian Geese, to sunsets, to the QWERTY keyboard - and in each short chapter, Green manages to provoke a range of feelings from pure joy and wonder to profound grief and loneliness. Each chapter then ends with Green's personal rating of that subject out of 5 stars.
It's hard to explain how and why this collection of essays is so powerful and unique and beautiful. It is like a time capsule of the human condition, how wonderful and tragic it can be, and how we find our place and meaning in it.
It's hard for me to pick a favorite - but I feel a need to shout out the "Googling Strangers" chapter. It starts off a bit silly, with Green explaining how his social anxiety drives him to Google known attendees of a party before he arrives so that he feels he already knows them. It then meanders into the strangeness of social media, and how terrifyingly easy it is to find personal information on people, and how intrusive being a perpetually online personality can be. It then ends with a story from when he worked in a hospital in his early 20s and witnessed the tragedy of a very young child fighting for his life - and how years later, he struggled with whether or not to Google the kids name and see if he lived. I fully sobbed by the end. Just masterful storytelling from a fascinating, thoughtful, incredible person.
Highly highly recommend 🙏🏻
John Green has a way of speaking directly to my soul - picking at the smallest seemingly meaningless bits of life and dissecting them into the beautiful wonders that they are. I have been a huge fan since his books basically shaped my consciousness in middle school, and that he continues to dig his little fingers into my brain and massage it all around now that I am an old jaded adult, is truly miraculous.
The Anthropocene Reviewed essentially pokes fun at the need of modern humans to "rate" everything on a 5 star scale, from movies to restaurants to park benches. Each chapter focuses on a single subject, giving often a brief history, some introspection of how it relates to the human experience, and personal connections he has to the subject that has somehow affected his life. The subjects range from Canadian Geese, to sunsets, to the QWERTY keyboard - and in each short chapter, Green manages to provoke a range of feelings from pure joy and wonder to profound grief and loneliness. Each chapter then ends with Green's personal rating of that subject out of 5 stars.
It's hard to explain how and why this collection of essays is so powerful and unique and beautiful. It is like a time capsule of the human condition, how wonderful and tragic it can be, and how we find our place and meaning in it.
It's hard for me to pick a favorite - but I feel a need to shout out the "Googling Strangers" chapter. It starts off a bit silly, with Green explaining how his social anxiety drives him to Google known attendees of a party before he arrives so that he feels he already knows them. It then meanders into the strangeness of social media, and how terrifyingly easy it is to find personal information on people, and how intrusive being a perpetually online personality can be. It then ends with a story from when he worked in a hospital in his early 20s and witnessed the tragedy of a very young child fighting for his life - and how years later, he struggled with whether or not to Google the kids name and see if he lived. I fully sobbed by the end. Just masterful storytelling from a fascinating, thoughtful, incredible person.
Highly highly recommend 🙏🏻