Good morning Hank, it’s Tuesday.
So I have a new book coming out!
Which would be a great title for this
video if I hadn’t made an absurd and
increasingly ridiculous commitment
several months ago. But, one must
get the show on. So here we are.
For the last 2 and a half years
I’ve been writing a podcast called
The Anthropocene Reviewed,
which is a little hard to describe.
Like, the premise is that I review different
facets of the human centered planet on a
five-star scale. Like I might review the
bacterium staphylococcus aureus
or the concept of love at first sight
or the Taco Bell breakfast menu.
But that’s not actually what the podcast
is about, it’s about, like, hope and whether
it is justified, and it’s about how people
can be so wonderful but also so horrible.
And how humans are at once forces of
astonishing creation and gut-wrenching
destruction. And it’s about the contemporary
human paradox of being at once far
too powerful, and not nearly powerful enough.
Like powerful enough to reshape the entire
climate of the planet, but not powerful
enough to reshape it in a way that’s beneficial.
I don’t know though, that makes
it sound very serious and I want the
essays to be funny and also sometimes sad.
I’m very bad at talking about my own work.
I guess the reviews are my attempt to
pay attention to what I pay attention to,
to borrow a line from my friend Amy Krouse
Rosenthal. And over the last year I’ve been
expanding and revising some of the reviews
from the podcast, and also writing some
new ones, and now the Anthropocene
Reviewed is going to be a book!
It’s my first book of non-fiction and I am
very nervous and/or excited.
One symptom of 2020 for me is that I
genuinely can’t tell if it’s an ‘and’
or an ‘or.’ But anyway, the Anthropocene Reviewed
book will be published on May 18
2021 and it is available for preorder now.
Also there will be an audiobook, read by me.
The response to the podcast in general, and
especially to the most recent, quite personal
episode has been really overwhelming in the
best possible way. I’ve never been as worried
about sharing something as I was about that
episode, and people have been so generous.
So, thank you! I hope you like the book.
But wait you ask, will you be signing the
entire first printing of the book like you did
with the Fault in our Stars? As it happens,
yes, I will be signing the entire first printing of the
American and Canadian edition, which unfortunately
means that if you live outside the US or Canada,
even if you order an American English
language edition it will probably not be signed.
I’m really sorry about that, but the systems
of international printing and shipping just
don’t allow for that. But if you live in the US
or Canada, and you pre-order the book it will be signed.
I would like to say that I’m doing this
as a gift for people who preorder the book or whatever,
but no I’m doing it for myself. I would
like to make a small repeated mark on a piece
of paper over 100,000 times in a way that
hopefully makes at least some people happy
and this opportunity has conveniently emerged.
Somewhat related- look at my circles!
I have so far drawn 17,000 circles in my
attempt to understand the number 170,000.
This is so many circles that it might freak
out the Youtube compression algorithm and yet
it is only 10% of the circles I need to draw.
Now astute observers will note that I have
somewhat less than 90% of the paper
remaining to draw 90% of the circles.
How will this problem resolve itself?
I look forward to finding out. Also related,
it has been really lovely to see the circles
that many of you are drawing, some because
you’re trying to grieve a loss, some
because you are trying to understand
your own large numbers, and some
because you, like me, also find relief
in doodling. I’m really grateful to all
of you who shared circles on the
Nerdfighter subreddit or nerdfighter
discords and so on.
Hank, as I discuss on the most recent
episode of the anthropocene reviewed,
it has been a long and at times very
challenging 3 years since my last book,
Turtles All the Way Down was published.
But writing these essays has also been the
most fun I’ve had writing since,
maybe ever. In fact I’m going to go get back to it.
I’ll see you on-- Wait I should say that
the Anthropocene Reviewed book
comes out on May 18th, 2021 and
is available for pre-order now.
And then I say, I’ll see you on Friday.
I’ll see you on Friday. You’re a good brother.
I never would have done this if it hadn’t
been for you, so thank you for
encouraging me to do it.
Thank you. Goodbye.
