Book Review: The Anthropocene Reviewed

5 AM is not a time I normally see. A liminal space that’s too “morning” for staying up and too early to be waking up. Light enough to not feel like night but dark enough to feel like morning, it doesn’t quite feel real.

Perhaps it’s fitting that it’s in this pocket of time I’m reminiscing about what my blog post should be for the beginning of this year. A natural conclusion would be a monthly setup post to supplement last month’s yearly set up. Or maybe I should try a challenge and log my experience? I’ve been reading a lot lately, should I do a review?

My favorite book (in the four I’ve read so far) has been The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green. The book feels a lot like 5 AM.

Too nonfiction to be fiction, yet too poetic to simply be facts. Experiences color the pages yet there are no images to fill in. What speaks to me the most if the way it makes you feel. As if you’re on the cusp of something great only to realize that what’s ahead has been with you the entire time.

Whimsy is not a word I use often but there is a sense of wonder in the pages. And the pages flow together despite each chapter being a standalone essay that can be put down once you reach the end.

Yet I wanted to keep going. 

John Green manages the balance between personal and holistic which makes the reader feel like they’re learning something but connecting with the author. Each chapter a different subject to peruse as if talking with a friend. “Oh do you know that song You’ll Never Walk Alone?” or “Hey, let me tell you something about Halley’s Comet.”

Each essay ends with perhaps the most familiar thing to all of us in this day and age, a review. You can rate the song on a radio out of 10 and the restaurant you had dinner at in stars and how you feel in a sliding range of emojis from smiling to crying. It ties up the author’s thoughts, perhaps too simplistically and yet perhaps that’s the point.

Because in the end it’s one person’s take, and you will have your own review if you decide to read the book. 

But for me, I give The Anthropocene Reviewed 5 stars.