The last book - the diary of the last earthlings

Haribol · Friday at 11:12 PM

Alright, so this thread is primarilly about the book mentioned in the title: if you have any thoughts or knowledge of it. Id also like to write a little about my relationship with reading and the book boat Epos. You are, as always, free to respond as you wish.

So, From the age to, lets say 7-8 up til 15-16, I was a big reader. Untill the teenage years, it was mostly (maybe exclusivley) fantasy or children books. A loooooot of Harry Potter :wub: During the age 13-16 (approx), I got into some of the great authors of the the 1900s, starting with my countryman Hamsun. What a writer! Below is an excerpt from his wiki article:

Spoiler

Hamsun is considered "one of the most influential and innovative literary stylists of the past hundred years" (ca. 1890–1990).^[2] He pioneered psychological literature with techniques of stream of consciousness and interior monologue, and influenced authors such as Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka, Maxim Gorky, Stefan Zweig, Henry Miller, Hermann Hesse, John Fante, James Kelman, Charles Bukowski and Ernest Hemingway.^[3] Isaac Bashevis Singer called Hamsun "the father of the modern school of literature in his every aspect—his subjectiveness, his fragmentariness, his use of flashbacks, his lyricism. The whole modern school of fiction in the twentieth century stems from Hamsun".^[4]

Herman Hesse, mentioned in the excerpt above, I loved as well. Siddharta and Steppenwolf I remember really spoke to me, but I do not remember the stories, as it is more than a decade since I read them.

After that, untill I came across the Gita and Isha Upanishad, I was relegated from the library of life to youtube university. Well, relegated might be a bit to harsh of a word; perhaps getting a some superficial knowledge of various fields was adventagues before diving deep, as I intend to know. So, I have been given two "orders" from several people I respect and see as friends as teachers. One is to chant the mahamantra, the other to read a few pages of vedic litterature daily. Right know, I am reading Nectar of devotion, and so far it seems real good. I also think I might have identified my dharma: ayurveda, so thats something id like to specialize in.

Now, over to the library boat Epos:

The western region of Norway, is... well, look at the pick above: mountainous and fjords everywhere. This leads to there being a lot of smaller communites scattered around this region. So in order to give them access to a library that everyone in cities and larger towns has, Epos has been sailing the fjords for more than six decades Since 2022 they function a little different: they now rely on donated books, and can either be bought or read (for free) at the ship itself, and is also a cafe/bar. Today, they took camp at a port I was walking trough, so I went in and had a chat.

One book really cought my attention, the last book - the diary of the last earthlings. It was just fascninating, but hard to get a grip about what it was about, so I asked on of the employes. She said it was about everything (of value). The idea being, if youve read this, you know all you need to know and wont have to read another book ever again. I asked how much she wanted for it, but since this was a donation, it was not for sale. I was ofc. welcome to read it at the ship, but considering how sporadically they travel around, Im not sure if the stars will align again. Another alternativ, was to buy it elsewhere for 1.500 NOK (divide that by 10 and you get the approx price (150) in euros, usd and pounds). As of know, this is too much for me.