The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet
John Green, the author of many popular books such as Looking for Alaska and Turtles all the way Down wrote this collection of 40 essays. Overall the essays are varied in topic, but collectively they sort of glide through the centuries and hit on some related string of topics.
Since there are so many essays, here are a few that stuck out, and I think its worth reading this collection because each essay is quite interesting, perhaps something you can relate to, or something you’ll say “ah!” to:
- There’s an essay entirely on the QWERTY layout of a keyboard and how it was invented, and why it stuck despite its seeming randomness.
- How the iOS Notes app is basically just fragments of our memories
- Pop culture vs science and Velociraptors
- Reflection on pain and its role in isolating your self
- Pandemics / plagues, as this was published during the COVID pandemic, and how society unites and finds its way through
- Scratch n sniff stickers and fleeting joy
It’s fun and quite thought provoking to read Green’s essays, each one having you take a little bit closer of a look into something you may typically have ignored. Stirs your brain just a little!
“One of the strange things about adulthood is that you are your current self, but you are also all the selves you used to be, the ones you grew out of but can’t ever quite get rid of.”