The Reading Table

Several years ago, I found myself needing to move from my home much sooner than I’d imagined…I’d moved recently and had just set up several large bookshelves in a narrow hallway that worked as the perfect library. Packing up and moving my books so soon after my previous move was rough but I did it. And then, I had to move again. Yikes. It was in move #3 that I made a commitment to go digital with new books whenever I could. And I have, with some exceptions—the exceptions to this, in particular, are photo books, graphic novel and non-fiction graphic style books, and richly illustrated children’s books.

Back when I was writing the Mindful Digital Life newsletter, I started a regular feature called The Reading Table. For me, the star of that section was not just whatever book I was sharing. It was the table itself. I didn’t know my father as a maker. I knew him as a warm-hearted, people person who found other people (mostly my mother) to fix things that needed fixing. When his younger sister died several years after his death, I received a call asking if I might want a small reading table apparently made by my dad when he was in high school. I had no idea such an artifact existed and responded with an enthusiastic yes. 

When I picked up the table which was waiting at my mother’s house, delivered there by one of my cousins, I recognized it immediately. It had lived right beside my grandfather’s red leather chair, piled with all his books, in the house where my father grew up. I spent many summers there when I was a child.

About 12 inches below the table’s surface, a V-shaped shelf formed by two narrow strips of wood running the length of the tabletop can hold several more books. So when I started The Reading Table feature, my dad’s reading table was an inspiration as much as the books. 

Some books just need a table…

…like the book Thunder & Lightning by Lauren Redniss in the photo above, and this stunning photo book, on another reading table in the Airstream where I am writing this week.

National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore is the founder of the Photo Ark, a 25-year project to show the world the beauty of biodiversity and inspire action to save species and habitat. In his words, he is working “to document every species in human care around the world.” I first encountered his extraordinary photographs on Instagram where I follow a lot of wildlife photographers.

Step into the tent of conservation

“It is folly to think that we can destroy one species and ecosystem after another and not affect humanity. When we save species, we’re actually saving ourselves.”

To date, 17 years into the project, Joel has photographed and filmed 14,702 species. And all the photos are online—you can search the 48,541-picture Photo Ark for an animal or species or you can scroll down to see every species in the Ark (you’ll be scrolling for a long time).

The project also has a Video Ark on YouTube.

This short (3 min) video by National Geographic Education in the series Explorers in the Field features Joel and the work of the Photo (and Video) Ark.

And here is a National Geo video on the Ark’s 15 year anniversary. In this clip (7 min), Joel explains the deeper goals behind the project. 

“We don't want this just to become the world's largest obituary documenting all these species that vanish on our watch. Instead we want all these species to come together and pull people into the tent of conservation and get them to care while there's still time. There is still so much worth saving.” 

For a little humor, watch this clip of Joel trying to film a chimpanzee in the Sunset Zoo, in Manhattan, Kansas..

Last, I encourage you to take the time (20 mins) to go deeper with the Photo Ark project. Here’s Joel speaking at the World Economic Forum about the project seven years ago.

Going forward

Once a month, I’ll write about books currently on the Reading Table, including the newest book from Joel, Photo Ark Insects: Butterflies, Bees, and Kindred Creatures. When the pandemic put a stop to traveling, he started photographing insects in his backyard in Nebraska. Stay tuned. 

Meanwhile, you can read more about Thunder & Lightning here in the MDL archives.

Elsewhere on Substack—a celebration

Heather Cox Richardson celebrates “a major legal victory for those combating climate change”—in the recent ruling on the lawsuit Held v. Montana filed on behalf of sixteen young Montanans in March 2020 by the nonprofit public interest law firm Our Children’s Trust. The Montana state court ruled in favor of the young people. The Western Environmental Law Center goes into more depth here. 

Yes, that’s a ton of links this week. Explore a few of them in your first read through and then return a few more times to explore the rest.

Thanks for engaging with The Interconnect. Be well.