Reader Spotlight:
In our Reader Spotlight series, we talk to some of the most prolific readers on Substack about their favorite reads.
Environmentalist, activist, and climate-change journalist Bill McKibben of Crucial Years is a fervent reader, subscribing to 85 Substacks and paying for 5.
What’s your reading diet like?
I read … a lot. When I was a kid, every class was spent with a book hidden on my knees under the desk; I’d read cereal boxes then, and I still would, except I make my own granola now, being a good clichéd Vermonter.
What Substack do you recommend to friends most often?
I often get deep technical questions about climate and energy. I have some knowledge here, but it’s not my real forte, so I often send them off to ’ Volts.
What Substack is most likely to make you cry?
I read The Cottage from religiously. And given the parlous state of American Christianity, it often makes me sad.
What’s the first Substack you subscribed to?
The first one I ever read was ’s Heated —until she started writing one, I’d never heard of Substack.
Who would you like to see on Substack?
George Orwell? We forget how much of his best writing was done casually and fairly fast—and his journals make it clear that it was always a pain to mail things to London, etc. I suspect he might have enjoyed his own newsletter, and I know I would have. Alternatively, Orwell’s most recent biographer (sort of), Rebecca Solnit.
For more recommendations from , follow him by visiting his profile.
Nominate a reader for us to spotlight next by @ mentioning them in the replies.
