The Anthropocene Reviewed
Ratings310
Average rating4.4
A cute, hopeful, and interesting collection of random little essays. I lost interest towards the end but I think that just reflects my own reading slump rather than the quality of the book.
Let's just start with this little nugget. “Almost one-third of all residential water use in the U.S.—clean, drinkable water—is dedicated to lawns... Americans use ten times more fertilizer and pesticide per acre of turfgrass than is used in corn or wheat fields ...and grass clippings and other yard waste constitute 12 percent of all the material that ends up in U.S. landfills.” Just wow.
As the dust jacket reminds us, this is after all a collection of essays on our human-centred planet. To that end there are stories about the discovery of the Lascaux cave paintings, the history of Teddy Bears, Piggly Wiggly and Monopoly, examinations on the Yips and the photo Young Farmers from August Sander. As a whole it is entirely enlightening.
But it is also warm and heartfelt and lovingly in awe with world around us. It is the ritual of biking to the Indianapolis 500 with friends, an unabashed love of Diet Dr Pepper, wrestling with anxiety and watching Harvey while dealing with depression that puts author John Green front and centre of these stories. I love his outsized love for his brother, his wife and children, his friends and English football. It's no mean feat to unironically wear your heart on your sleeve and not come of as narcissistic or unbearably saccharine. It helps that he's been living his values out loud online for some time now with VlogBrothers, Crash Course, Project for Awesome and now TikTok. To trust the world, to show it your belly despite the intensely fragile part of you that is terrified of turning itself to the world - that in itself is extraordinary.
The audiobook for this was great. I didn't realize how relatable John Green was until I saw his TikToks and this book is an extension of that relatability. I've struggled with pandemic related media, but this was so well done and integrated into the larger stories that I could actually finish. I loved the concept of rating everyday things. I give this book 4.5 stars
If you saw me crying with my earbuds in any time in the past few weeks, it's probably because I was listening to this.
I started watching the vlogbrothers in 2008. I'm not a religious watcher of YouTube like I was in those days, but the Greens continue to add happiness to my life. Also they are indirectly responsible for many of my treasured friendships as well as my marriage as I met these people through the online community they formed.
A few of the stories John tells in this book, I have heard before through his vlogs, and like New Partner can bring him back to previous times he listened to it, hearing about Harvey reminds me of watching his vlog about it, alone in the lab, crying and realising that maybe I had OCD and maybe I could get help, both of which were true. Hearing about his obsession with his various mortifications reminded me about how as a teenager, I had a dream I got to meet him in person at my house, but he left because I was too boring.
But even if you're not a fan of John's books or videos, I still think most people will enjoy these essays simply because they are wonderful essays. They are thoughtful and funny and heartbreaking. They are good companions for anybody living through the Anthropocene.
A wide variety of topics, all with John Green's emotion and research behind them. It gave me hope for the future.
This book is hope and this book is longing. John Green knows beauty and darkness, and he knows how to put beauty and darkness onto the page. This book is perfect.
Was gifted this by Reggie (love you!!!!) for my 20th birthday and she told me it gave her hope during dark times in the pandemic and the transition between teenage years and your twenties. I totally agree. The series of essays made me smile, taught me many new things about the world, and brought more than a few tears to my eyes. John Green gives such thought to decidedly mundane aspects of life and gives them heart and hope. Definitely one of the most interesting nonfiction books I've read. Could get a bit repetitive in structure, but since I loved it, it didn't bother me. Highly recommend!!
Well, didn't see this coming so long after my tweens/teens but looks like John Green is gonna be life coach again. dftba
Loved it! Reading this book made me want to write my own version reviewing the Anthropocene.
*Insightful, funny and often deeply moving, this book is a lot of fun and further establishes John Green, for me, as simply a good human and a wonderful writer. As an author, he is the anti Mitch Albom. His voice rings with clarity and truth. I give The Anthropocene Reviewed four and a half stars.
I'm only a moderate fan of John Green's fiction, so I was delighted to find how much I like his nonfiction essays. The book is a collection of short studies on a particular topic of our human-centered planet, ranging from the best of what humanity has to offer, to the mundane and bad.
Green trained to be a pastor, and you can tell: he has an earnest love for so many of the wonders of our world, and some of his feel like sermons. He has a delicate balance between seeing all of the bad things that have come with humanity's rise on planet earth and critiquing them, while still being present to and in love with the world. It reminds me of the old Discovery Channel commercial, “Boom de yada,” about the great things on planet earth. But he never makes it feel like a silver lining, and never shies away from exploring the terrible things we are losing in our new world, from extinctions to social connections. He's at times hilarious, vulnerable, heartbreaking, and full of hope. Highly recommended. Many of these are available on the podcast of the same name, if you want to try them out.
Not quite what I expected; but then again, I wasn't really sure what to expect. I associate the word “anthropocene” with climate change because that's the context which I've most often heard it in... but I know that John Green isn't a climate scientist so wasn't exactly expecting this to be a book about climate change either. Turns out, it's about a lot of things! I suppose it's somewhat of a memoir, but written through reviews on various things in life. For example, there's a chapter on Diet Dr Pepper, another one on the song You'll Never Walk Alone, and a chapter on Indianapolis.
Overall I thought it was an enjoyable and light read, and I got to learn a few things about John Green as well.
3.75/5
Delightful. Beautifully written, often funny stories, interspersed with many excellent quotes and references to poetry. Subtle, surprisingly deep thoughts on certain topics. I feel there's a kind of recognition between people who spend a lot of time pondering why things are the way they are. It was nice to feel that here, in the midst of an eloquent turn of phrase that might be deeper than it first appears. I can't wait to read this again, and I'll probably return to particular essays as they come to mind. Glad I purchased this one.
I've never read any of John Green's other books (I mostly read nonfiction). I imagine they're excellent.
I've never read a John Green book before nor watched his YouTube videos. This wasn't even on my radar and even when it won the GR award, I didn't think that I would pick it up. But I have this habit of needing to listen to an audiobook every night while trying to sleep, so I'm always looking for whichever is available in my library. And when I found this one without a waitlist, I thought why not.
And this wasn't at all what I expected. I know the blurb says it's like an essay collection but because he narrates it himself, it felt like he was having a conversation with us, talking to us about all the random topics and tidbits he could think of, while also giving some unexpectedly profound thoughts on them. I can't even pick the ones I thought were best because they were all so mixed up but enjoyable and funny but also insightful at the same time. I probably did like the chapters about dinosaurs, the Internet, the notes app, and even the plague (thought that was equally heartbreaking). And his whole idea of rating these random things was definitely amazing. I don't know if I would have liked the book as much if I had read it because I feel the narration brings it to life.
And in this third year of the pandemic, this felt like the perfect book for our circumstances. In these times when we sometimes feel lost and don't know what to do or can't concentrate on anything, you can pick any chapter in this book at random and listen to it to just maybe take your mind off of things.
A refreshing non fiction read.
This being a “post-Covid” book seems unexpectedly very comfortable.
The content itself is not life-changing as such, but it's really fun to read. John Green's writing always feels very real. Also, there is definitely some good wisdom and perspectives sprinkled in here that every John Green book provides.
Recommended if you want a light, quick and satisfying read.
I can't give this book enough stars. The audio was amazing, but I also ended up purchasing a physical copy before I finished so I could go back and read my favorite bits.
First off, I love John Green as an author. Looking for Alaska? The Fault in Our Stars? Sign me UP. I also love non-fiction so seeing that JG wrote a non-fiction, I jumped at the chance to pick this up. Now I had ZERO idea what an Anthropocene is (it's the current geological age, btw) but I dove right in. I throughly enjoyed that this was a book of reviews (in essay form) on current inventions, phenomena, societal issues, etc. with actual ratings on a five-star scale. These essays covered topics ranging from Air Conditioning to the Plague. I enjoyed that the essays included facts as well as personal anecdotes. I also personally love smaller chapters in books; it makes me feel as though I'm plowing through quicker 😬 Overall I give my first completed read of 2022 4⭐️!
3.5 stars
Lot of really great essays in here and an amazing concept. Lot of them didn't land for me but the one's that did chef's kiss
A very light, unthemed set of essays that with a rare exception are largely frivolous entertainment. Would probably enjoy more if I was on the second week of a holiday & more chilled
Summary: A series of essays, often biographical, formated as product or experience reviews.
I am a fan of John Green. We are not much alike, but I have often wondered if we would get along and be friends given the chance. We both love books. He was scheduled to go to the University of Chicago Divinity School right after I graduated from the Divinity School. However, after working as a chaplain at a children's hospital, he changed his mind about his career path and never started. We are both very earnest introverts close to the same age. We are married with two young kids close to the same age. And most other things are pretty different.
However, the Anthropocene Reviewed does seem designed particularly for me. The Anthropocene is the current geological age. And this series of essays is framed as product reviews from that current geological age. The reviews are a mix of funny, short, long, serious, random, and current event-focused. I have written thousands of reviews. I have reviewed almost every book I have read for the last 12 years, over 1500 of them. And because of those reviews, Amazon contacted me years ago to see if I would like to be one of their product reviewers. I was just outside of being one of their top 500 reviewers at one point in time. I looked, and as of today, I have just under 3000 reviews on Amazon (some written by my wife), and I am the 1075th most popular reviewer on Amazon. A reality that makes me very ambivalent about the idea of product reviews.
But as Green says early in the book, those reviews often reveal more about the author than the product. John Green is well known as a young adult author that deals with mental illness and other heavy topics. In The Anthropocene Reviewed, he is more directly opening up about his struggles with mental illness, especially anxiety and depression, than he can in fiction. And in a format that does not seem to be directly about him, John Green reveals an enormous amount about himself as he pretends to be writing about products or experiences.
Like most people, the reviews are mostly four stars. Roughly 1/3 of the way through, he writes about how it can be hard to fully embrace a deep love of something and then gives his first five-star review. There are also 1-star reviews. This book started as a podcast, which was impacted by the Covid pandemic. So much of the book is a reflection on or at least conscious of 2020 and early 2021. So he reviews Plagues and Staphylococcus Aureus and Canadian Geese and the Internet and Piggly Wiggly, but as a person in 2020 and 2021.
As a product reviewer, I can tell you that product reviews make little difference in the world. But making sense of the world does matter. And as the real purpose of The Anthropocene Review is to make sense of the world, it is excellent. I devoured it, finishing it in less than 48 hours. Although I do not struggle with mental illness in the ways that John Green does, his explanation and descriptions I find enormously helpful to understand those who do struggle with depression and other mental illnesses, I do relate to the attempts to understand and make sense of a world that does not always make a lot of sense.
I listened to this on audiobook, with John Green narrating. He speaks a lot about how uncomfortable he is in front of people and around people. But as I know him significantly through his work on Crash Course and his other work as a YouTube star, that is somewhat hard to reconcile with his very public persona. But it does mean that the book is made better by his narration. So this is a book that I would probably recommend listening to. But it is also a book with genuine wisdom, and I will likely reread it, more slowly and in print.
A book about nothing and everything
In reading a book as diverse as this, we can either find more about the author or more about ourselves or maybe a little of both. The Anthropocene Reviewed is many things because the Anthropocene is many things. It is a roller coaster of experiences: intensely profound and numbingly dull. It is what it is. I am what I am. I give The Anthropocene Reviewed four and half stars.