Thanks, Jason for the many solstice gifts! Not least of which, these lines of yours:
“The light that’s returning is already within us.” (Oh my!)
“And really, it’s not the light that’s returning. It’s us and our place on the living, spinning, orbiting sphere that’s turning back to the light. The light never left, never moved, never blinked. The sun is always standing still. Earth is the tumultuous one in the relationship, and humans are the children spinning tales about the tumult.”
Just dropping in a couple of weeks late to say thanks for this piece. It was another dense and wonderful read. I just ordered a copy of Ways of Being thanks to your rec here (which is the second I saw this week - the other writer recommending this book was Austin Kleon). Of those you listed on your TBR, I've read a few, and would particularly recommend Eager. I also read The Heat Will Kill You First recently (oddly enough, while holing up in a trailer during freak rainstorms at Burning Man) and it was impactful in the vein of the opening scene of Kim Stanley Robinson's Ministry for the Future, which I had to set aside because it was too much. Maybe I'll return to the Robinson book in 2024.
Heather (my better half) just gifted Eager to me, so I'm happy to dig into that. And I will say that the opening scene is by far the hardest part of Ministry, so it's worth getting back to. For all the power of that dystopian scene, Robinson is a utopian writer. How he works forward from that catastrophe to a better future is worth reading. Definitely worth your time. Thanks for chiming in here, Rebecca.
Cool. I'm working on a themed TBR for 2024 today, in an attempt to have some sort of discipline with my reading habits (and book-buying!) going forward. I'll add it and plan to give Ministry another go!
Happy to do it, Mike. You provide an amazing amount of info. Bryan Pfeiffer of Chasing Nature pointed you out to me, by the way. If you don't know his work, you should check him out.
I appreciate your stack of books waiting to be read. Here too, but that didn’t stop me from buying three titles by Nina McLaughlin. I love her Paris Review pieces. Thank you for your beautifully crafted and thoughtful writings. It is a welcome treat every week. Happy Solstice!
Thank you, Melissa. Someone should have a clever name for those stacks of unread books. Happy you've discovered Nina, too. Her work just keeps getting better.
And there it is. Thank you, Emil. Now can we make up an English one-word equivalent? The suggestion on the wiki page is "antilibrary," but that doesn't get at the potential or the intent. Something like "wishlist," but more specific to the bibiliomania...
Aw, shucks — thanks, Jason, for the shoutout. And, as always, thanks for thinking and writing on behalf of the planet.
Thanks, Jason for the many solstice gifts! Not least of which, these lines of yours:
“The light that’s returning is already within us.” (Oh my!)
“And really, it’s not the light that’s returning. It’s us and our place on the living, spinning, orbiting sphere that’s turning back to the light. The light never left, never moved, never blinked. The sun is always standing still. Earth is the tumultuous one in the relationship, and humans are the children spinning tales about the tumult.”
🙏
My, that is so beautiful Laura
That Jason can sure turn a phrase!
One of the premier writers on Substack!
Just dropping in a couple of weeks late to say thanks for this piece. It was another dense and wonderful read. I just ordered a copy of Ways of Being thanks to your rec here (which is the second I saw this week - the other writer recommending this book was Austin Kleon). Of those you listed on your TBR, I've read a few, and would particularly recommend Eager. I also read The Heat Will Kill You First recently (oddly enough, while holing up in a trailer during freak rainstorms at Burning Man) and it was impactful in the vein of the opening scene of Kim Stanley Robinson's Ministry for the Future, which I had to set aside because it was too much. Maybe I'll return to the Robinson book in 2024.
Heather (my better half) just gifted Eager to me, so I'm happy to dig into that. And I will say that the opening scene is by far the hardest part of Ministry, so it's worth getting back to. For all the power of that dystopian scene, Robinson is a utopian writer. How he works forward from that catastrophe to a better future is worth reading. Definitely worth your time. Thanks for chiming in here, Rebecca.
Cool. I'm working on a themed TBR for 2024 today, in an attempt to have some sort of discipline with my reading habits (and book-buying!) going forward. I'll add it and plan to give Ministry another go!
Thanks for mentioning my book and my newsletter, Jason. I appreciate that. I'm looking forward to getting into your writing too.
Mike, I also want to say how glad I am you're emphasizing biodiversity alongside climate. The necessity of working on both just isn't getting the press and policy it needs. (I did a bit on it here: https://jasonanthony.substack.com/p/a-flat-tire-and-a-dead-battery-redux)
Happy to do it, Mike. You provide an amazing amount of info. Bryan Pfeiffer of Chasing Nature pointed you out to me, by the way. If you don't know his work, you should check him out.
I appreciate your stack of books waiting to be read. Here too, but that didn’t stop me from buying three titles by Nina McLaughlin. I love her Paris Review pieces. Thank you for your beautifully crafted and thoughtful writings. It is a welcome treat every week. Happy Solstice!
Thank you, Melissa. Someone should have a clever name for those stacks of unread books. Happy you've discovered Nina, too. Her work just keeps getting better.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsundoku
And there it is. Thank you, Emil. Now can we make up an English one-word equivalent? The suggestion on the wiki page is "antilibrary," but that doesn't get at the potential or the intent. Something like "wishlist," but more specific to the bibiliomania...
At least we can count on the Japanese for always having a word for all the good stuff.
"Book-alanches?" since mine are always on the verge of toppling over (an do)
"Leaning Towers of Good Intentions?" for similar reasons
" Jason's Skim Piles?" ,If you do what I do.i could go on...
Another wonderful read from a Dane looking forward to brighter days.
Maybe it's my Danish heritage emerging, Emil... My maternal grandfather's family were Albertsons. Thanks for the note.