Good morning Hank, it’s Tuesday. So I wrote this book, the Anthropocene
Reviewed, which is a collection of essays reviewing different facets
of the human centered planet on a five star scale. I am very grateful
and a little surprised that the book has found such a wide readership.
It has now been on the New York Times bestseller list for 8
consecutive weeks. And my initial assumption that everyone who
read the book would be someone who watches these videos turns
out to have been wrong. Like just today I got an email that had,
no joke, the all caps subject line, “GRANDMOTHER LOVES
YOUR BOOK” and I was like, sadly my grandmothers are
not here to read it so how could they love it? But it turns
out it was someone else’s grandmother.
It was such a kind and sweet email, so thank you
Katherine from Minnesota, I give your email 5 stars.
Which reminds me that one of weirdest things about the last
8 weeks is that the book explore the simultaneous
absurdity and indispensability of the 5 star scale and now of
course it is widely being reviewed on a five star scale. In nice news,
on both Goodreads and Amazon the Anthropocene Reviewed
has a much higher average rating than any of my other books,
it also, for the record, has a higher average rating than
Macbeth which, you know, possibly indicates some problems
with the 5 star scale. But I have to confess I have read some
of these reviews of my book of reviews, and after
reading them I felt it was necessary to go deeper and
review the reviews of my book of reviews.
Before I do this though, I just want to say if you read the book
and want to review it that’s great, but please don’t go through
reviews and like say mean things to people.
Ok let’s start with a 2-star review that reads in part, “behind Green’s ideological
views I recognize the typical characteristics of a man with
essentially feminine instinct.” Thank you. Chef’s kiss, 5 stars.
But the best 2 star review starts out something like, “Hank Green
certainly knows his science but he doesn’t know anything about people.”
Unfortunately I have to give that review 2 stars because on several
levels it unjustly maligns my brother. Ok, a more positive one. On Goodreads
someone gave it 4 stars and wrote: “this is such a *soft* book, I love it.”
That is exactly what I wanted to do, I wanted to write a soft book for
a hard moment. Now if you loved it you could have given it 5 stars,
but then again I gave the cave paintings at Lascaux 4 and a half stars so
maybe I should just shut up and be grateful, that said of course I can
only give your review 4 stars. Another nice one, someone named
Gabriella wrote, “equal parts stubborn hope and self awareness.
There are many things my cynicism has managed to withstand over time,
but I found it difficult to hold onto it in the face of such tender, vulnerable,
and heartfelt essays.” Jeez thanks Gabriella. It occurs to
me that there is nothing more radical or countercultural at the moment
than laying down one’s cynicism in favor of tender vulnerability.
5 star review. Also on Goodreads, someone gave the Anthropocene
Reviewed 3 stars and described it as a “little Ted Lasso like.” Buddy, if
you think I’m going to be disappointed about you calling my book Ted Lasso-like
you are mistaken. I give your 3 star review 5 stars. In one of my very favorite
reviews, wrote in part “If there was ever a book that reminds us of
what it means to be alive, this is it.” Which, I wrote it to remind me what
it means to be alive. So, yeah. Thank you. 5 stars. And then
we have Melissa who wrote in part, “as a COVID nurse, the reflections
in this collection have helped me find my white-knuckled way through
this pandemic.” Which, Melissa the idea is that I make you cry.
Not the other way around. Here’s the thing, Hank.
Almost all the reviews are like that. And I can’t riff on them or make
jokes about them because they are so open hearted and thoughtful.
And then evince the very sort of generosity
of spirit that I tried to bring to writing the book.
I don’t really have any clever rejoiners to that kindness. All I can say is a deeply
felt but wholly insufficient thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Hank, I’ll see you on Friday.
PS if you haven’t read the Anthropocene Reviewed, there are still signed copies available,
or you can get it at your local library, or you can get the audiobook
read by me if you want, you know, 10 hours of this monotonic baritone.
Is monotonic a word? It should be.