Interview with David Howe, author of Extraction to Extinction: Rethinking our Relationship with Earth's Natural Resources
David Howe, author of Extraction to Extinction: Rethinking our Relationship with Earth's Natural Resources recommends a great set of books! Before jumping into the interview, please check out David's book:
Review from Book Depository:
Everything we use started life in the earth, as a rock or a mineral vein, a layer of an ancient seabed, or perhaps the remains of a 400-million-year-old volcano. Humanity's ability to fashion nature to its own ends is by no means a new phenomenon - we have been inventing new ways to help ourselves to its bounty for tens of thousands of years. But today, we mine, quarry, pump, cut, blast and crush the Earth's resources at an unprecedented rate.
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Extraction to Extinction: Rethinking our Relationship with Earth's Natural Resources
We have become a dominant, even dangerous, force on the planet. In Extraction to Extinction, David Howe traces our environmental impact through time to unearth how our obsession with endlessly producing and throwing away more and more stuff has pushed our planet to its limit. And he considers the question: what does the future look like for our depleted planet?
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Book Depository €10.19
Waterstones £9.99
Wordery $12.57
Q. Do you have a favourite smart thinking book (and why that book)?
I’m not sure I have a favourite. There are so many I’ve read over the years that have inspired, excited, informed and given me pause for thought. But there is one that got me thinking about the human capacity to wonder and the need to understand, a capacity possessed by both scientists and artists. The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes explores the growth of the natural sciences during the Age of Romance. He weaves together the lives and achievements of Romantic scientists, artists and poets. The book certainly played a part in my own post-academic writing career.
Review From Book Depository:
Shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize and winner of the Royal Society Prize for Science Books, Richard Holmes's dazzling portrait of the age of great scientific discovery is a groundbreaking achievement.
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The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science
The book opens with Joseph Banks, botanist on Captain Cook's first Endeavour voyage, who stepped onto a Tahitian beach in 1769 fully expecting to have located Paradise. Back in Britain, the same Romantic revolution that had inspired Banks was spurring other great thinkers on to their own voyages of artistic and scientific discovery - astronomical, chemical, poetical, philosophical - that together made up the 'age of wonder'.
In this breathtaking group biography, Richard Holmes tells the stories of the period's celebrated innovators and their great scientific discoveries: from telescopic sight to the miner's lamp, and from the first balloon flight to African exploration.
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Easons €14.00
Book Depository €13.27
Waterstones £12.99
Wordery $14.64
Q. What's the most recent smart thinking book you've read (and how would you rate it)?
Well, I’m now 75 years old and like many people of my age I’m beginning to think about life, what’s it all about and when the time comes, how to bow out contentedly. One of my favourite writers is Richard Holloway who has written a number of books about his own life, religion and loss of faith. One time Bishop of Edinburgh, he’s now in his 80s and I’ve loved reading Waiting for the Last Bus: reflections on Life and Death. It’s a wonderfully positive book, joyful and reassuring. In fact, memoirs and books about the meaning of life (!) are amongst my current favourites including those by Penelope Lively, Hilary Mantel, Karen Armstrong and Julian Baggini.
Review From Book Depository:
Now in his ninth decade, former Bishop of Edinburgh Richard Holloway has spent a lifetime at the bedsides of the dying, guiding countless men and women towards peaceful deaths. A positive and profound exploration of the many important lessons we can learn, this is also a stirring plea to reacquaint ourselves with death. Doing so gives us the chance to think about the meaning of life itself; and can mean the difference between ordinary sorrow and unbearable regret at the end.
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Waiting for the Last Bus: Reflections on Life and Death
Radical, joyful and moving, Waiting for the Last Bus is an invitation to reconsider life's greatest mystery by one of the most important and beloved religious leaders of our time.
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Easons €13.99
Book Depository €9.54
Waterstones £9.99
Wordery $10.70
Q. Do you have a favourite childhood book?
Do you know, now I come to think about it, we didn’t have any books in our house when I was a young child. I used to get a comic once a week – the Beano I think, and maybe the Dandy from time to time. I vaguely remember reading Enid Blyton’s famous five books. But when I reached the age of eleven I joined the local public library and began to read voraciously.
Review From Book Depository:
Julian, Dick, Anne, George and Timmy the dog find excitement and adventure wherever they go in Enid Blyton's most popular series.
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The Famous Five Collection 1
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Easons €9.49
Book Depository €8.26
Waterstones £9.99
Wordery $11.60
Q. Do you prefer reading on paper, Kindle or listening to an audiobook?
Paper. I do have a kindle which I like to use when I’m travelling away from home for any length of time, but you can’t beat the feel, smell and look of a physical book.
Q. Do you have a favourite bookshop (and why that shop)?
Depends where I am. I live in Norwich and I love the Book Hive, followed closely by Jarrolds. I visit the Lake District several times a year and always pop into Sam Reads of Grasmere and Fred’s Bookshop in Ambleside. The Book Hive is small but beautifully formed and run by the very friendly, ever helpful and highly knowledgeable Henry and Joe. And they stock my books.
Many thanks to David for recommending a great set of books! Please don't forget to check out David's book Extraction to Extinction: Rethinking our Relationship with Earth's Natural Resources.
Daryl
Image Copyrights: Saraband (Extraction To Extinction), HarperCollins Publishers (The Age of Wonder), Canongate Books Ltd (Waiting For The Last Bus), Hodder Children's Books (The Famous Five Collection).
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