Recent reading

[luzula]

The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older (2023)
For book club; I listened to the audiobook. This was...perfectly okay? But did not really wow me. I think part of that was the setting: I could not really suspend my disbelief that humans could fuck up Earth to such an extent that it would be a better alternative to move to Jupiter. And the plot kept bringing up issues of ecology, so it was difficult to ignore.

Saying No to a Farm-Free Future by Chris Smaje (2023)
Now that I think of it, this book and the one above are kind of in conversation with each other, about how possible it is for humans to survive without Earth's ecosystems? I don't know that it was worth reading for me, since I already follow the author's blog, and had already got the gist of it. But anyway, it's arguing against ecomodernist claims that it would be possible (or desirable) to feed humanity on manufactured food from factories. Mainly on the basis that it would cost far too much energy in a future which is already likely to be less energy-rich than today, but it also brings up various social aspects.

I also read a Swedish book about the ground-living fungi of sandy pine forests, but probably no one in my DW circle is interested in that one.

Comments

[sanguinity]

*comes crashing into your comment section* TELL ME ABOUT THE GROUND-LIVING FUNGI OF SANDY PINE FORESTS! Is it like the ground-living fungi of Douglas fir forests?

[regshoe]

O_o Moving to Jupiter does sound like it would present certain rather extreme logistical problems.

Chris Smaje's stuff sounds interesting—I'll keep an eye out for those books. Interesting that he's apparently been arguing about this with George Monbiot, whose work I admired very much a few years ago, though I haven't been keeping up with it recently.

Well, my Swedish may not be good enough to read the book in question, but the ground-living fungi of sandy pine forests—and all obscure corners of natural history—are always interesting :)

[ysilme]

and all obscure corners of natural history—are always interesting :)
I second that. I might not actually read a whole book about it/the fungi, but mainly because my reading pile has grown to such a size I'm very careful with adding anything to it these days, but give me an article or a documentary and I'd happily devour it. *g*

[chestnut_pod]

I could not really suspend my disbelief that humans could fuck up Earth to such an extent that it would be a better alternative to move to Jupiter -- Hah, that's fair! For me, it justified itself by being Rule of Cool.

[scribe]

The two of us who both read the book and made it to bookclub also went, "well, this book was...fine," and mostly declined to bother discussing it, so you didn't miss much! :-P

(Also I definitely didn't realize the planet was supposed to be Jupiter, hahaha. Was that explicitly in there? I read the first half ages ago and the second half recently, so I may have forgotten some bits.)

I love your DW

[jesse_the_k]

because today you introduced me to both

mycorrhizal relationships which are amazing.

and the Rule of Cool