John Green has a way of making you think deeply about the world while also making you laugh at the absurdity of it all in The Anthropocene Reviewed. It is a collection of essays that blends personal reflections with fascinating insights into the age of humans: our triumphs, our disasters, and the strangely beautiful in-between moments.

I can relate so much with Green’s love-hate relationship with humanity. I found myself nodding along as he acknowledges both our brilliance and our recklessness:

“Humans are probably already an ecological catastrophe… As a result, for many forms of life, humanity is the apocalypse.”

We’ve driven species to extinction, reshaped the planet, and knowingly made choices that harm the environment. And yet, there’s something undeniably special about us. As Green puts it, we are “by far the most interesting thing that ever happened on Earth.”

This mix of admiration and critique runs throughout the book, making it one of the most unique nonfiction formats I’ve ever read. Green reviews aspects of the Anthropocene, the era in which humans have become a planetary force of change, in the same way someone might review a restaurant or a product on Google Maps. Each chapter focuses on a different phenomenon, and despite the seemingly random selection of topics, everything comes together in a way that feels both seamless and surprisingly cohesive.

One moment, Green is discussing Staphylococcus aureus; the next, he’s going into the history of teddy bears or the unsettling ease of Googling strangers (let’s be honest, we’ve all done it). He explores what it means to live in a time where we have almost too much information at our fingertips. He reflects on how much of our lives exist online, how privacy is disappearing, and how this constant transparency shapes the way we connect with the world.

I can’t think of another book quite like this. It’s intelligent without being intimidating, poetic without being pretentious, and emotional without being overwhelming.

If you enjoy books that make you see the world differently while also making you laugh and maybe touch your heart a little, The Anthropocene Reviewed is a must-read.

My Favorite Bits

My attention had become so fractured and my world had become so loud, that I wasn’t paying attention to what I was paying attention to.

John Green, The Anthropocene Reviewed

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Author: John Green

Publication date: 18 May 2021

Number of pages: 304 pages

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