What are you reading?

[petra]

For fun, for news, for whatever floats your boat; what sources of words are you enjoying at the moment?

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

For audio reading, I'm enjoying The Wizard and the Prophet by Charles C Mann, well read by the author. He explores the science and scientists who've discovered how the Earth works for us as humans -- agronomists, meterologists, and more. It explains why some people think the sky isn't falling, which is a new viewpoint to me. I adored his earlier works 1491 and 1493, about North America before European settlement and the "Columbian Exchange," respectively.

Video/Audio presentation: http://longnow.org/seminars/02018/jan/22/wizard-and-prophet/
Interview: https://psmag.com/environment/saving-the-world-with-wizards-and-prophets
Excerpt essay: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/book-incited-worldwide-fear-overpopulation-180967499/

Eyeball (re)reading is The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin. It's a treat to come back to this as an adult. Charlie Jane Anders wrote a great afterword that highlights how Le Guin intentionally writes her viewpoint character as a misogynist who's bewildered by the genderless folks he's attempting to interact with.

I'm finding soothing and sensible stuff online while avoiding social media, like Dahlia Lithwick's most excellent essay about how to think in the middle of this shit:

https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/03/how-to-spend-time-quarantine.html

[petra]

Thank you for the Dahlia Lithwick article. I feel differently grounded after reading it.