Radical Readers Book Club: "The World Without Us"

The Radical Readers Book Club welcomes readers, writers and book lovers of all kinds to join us for a discussion of Alan Weisman's "The World Without Us," parts III and IV.

"The World Without Us" reveals how, just days after humans disappear, floods in New York's subways would start eroding the city's foundations, and how, as the world’s cities crumble, asphalt jungles give way to real ones. Drawing on the expertise of engineers, atmospheric scientists, art conservators, zoologists, oil refiners, marine biologists, astrophysicists, religious leaders from rabbis to the Dalai Lama, Weisman illustrates what the planet might be like today, if not for us.

*Next up: "The Left Hand of Darkness" by award-winning writer Ursula K. Le Guin. Check the store for copies in the coming weeks. Save 15% if you buy the book at MonkeyWrench!

"How does one hate a country, or love one? Tibe talks about it; I lack the trick of it. I know people, I know towns, farms, hills and rivers and rocks, I know how the sun at sunset in autumn falls on the side of a certain plowland in the hills; but what is the sense of giving a boundary to all that, of giving it a name and ceasing to love where the name ceases to apply? What is love of one's country; is it hate of one's uncountry? Then it's not a good thing. Is it simply self-love? That's a good thing, but one musn't make a virtue of it, or a profession. ... Insofar as I love life, I love the hills of the Domain of Estre, but that sort of love does not have a boundary-line of hate. And beyond that, I am ignorant, I hope."
-"The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin