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A review by merle_bookdragon
The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
What an absolute fun and enjoyable read.
A selection of the things that I learned while reading this book:
- you should never predict the end of the world, you will almost certainly be wrong
- the tail of Halley's comet extends more than sixty million miles through space
- are conditioning systems in many buildings are biased to cater to men's temperature preferences
- basically all penicillin in the world descends from a mold found on a cantaloupe (and the scientists ate it after scraping off the mold)
- lawn maintenance creates more carbon dioxide than the lawns can capture
- Monopoly was actually invented by a woman
Before starting this book officially I had already read a single chapter of it about a year ago, the one titled "Auld Lang Syne." I had actually never actively heard of the song (though I am sure I had heard it before passively in a movie or something similar) and I found it so beautiful that I listened to it on repeat and then did a university assignment on it. I too would like to give Auld Lang Syne five stars.
Each first edition book of this title was signed by John Green. He made a video about this on the Youtube channel he shares with his brother Hank, explaining that his signature didn't make books worth more because by now, he has signed so many of them. However, I would like to claim an exception to this in this very instance. While every single book of this first edition was supposed to have a signature, mine has not. Thus, by NOT having a signature I would actually argue that my first edition of this book is worth more than the other ones. Oh how the tables have tabled. I give this book five stars.
A selection of the things that I learned while reading this book:
- you should never predict the end of the world, you will almost certainly be wrong
- the tail of Halley's comet extends more than sixty million miles through space
- are conditioning systems in many buildings are biased to cater to men's temperature preferences
- basically all penicillin in the world descends from a mold found on a cantaloupe (and the scientists ate it after scraping off the mold)
- lawn maintenance creates more carbon dioxide than the lawns can capture
- Monopoly was actually invented by a woman
Before starting this book officially I had already read a single chapter of it about a year ago, the one titled "Auld Lang Syne." I had actually never actively heard of the song (though I am sure I had heard it before passively in a movie or something similar) and I found it so beautiful that I listened to it on repeat and then did a university assignment on it. I too would like to give Auld Lang Syne five stars.
Each first edition book of this title was signed by John Green. He made a video about this on the Youtube channel he shares with his brother Hank, explaining that his signature didn't make books worth more because by now, he has signed so many of them. However, I would like to claim an exception to this in this very instance. While every single book of this first edition was supposed to have a signature, mine has not. Thus, by NOT having a signature I would actually argue that my first edition of this book is worth more than the other ones. Oh how the tables have tabled. I give this book five stars.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness
Moderate: Grief, Death, and Child death
Minor: Cancer, Suicidal thoughts, and Panic attacks/disorders