On February 13, 1997, the cargo ship Tokio Express encountered a one-in-a-hundred year storm that knocked sixty-two shipping containers off its deck and into the waters of the North Atlantic. One of those containers contained 4,756,940 pieces of LEGO, many of which soon started washing ashore, especially on certain beaches in the UK.

I remember seeing news stories about beachcombers starting to find bricks on these “LEGO beaches” and thinking how fun it would be to go collect some for myself one day. I haven’t made it out there yet, so imagine my delight at discovering a beautiful little book on the very topic, a meeting of nerdoms, a moment of Books & Bricks out in the wild.

Adrift: The Curious Tale of the Lego Lost at Sea was written by Tracey Williams, with additional written contributions by Dr Curtis Ebbesmeyer and Mario Cacciottolo, dozens of additional photography and poetry contributors, and design by Felicity Price-Smith. And it is a gorgeous book, filled with watercolour illustrations, infographics, and delightful full-colour photography.

But as beautiful and weirdly magical as this book is, it also brings us along on the author’s journey of discovery into the harsh reality of plastic in our oceans. The book’s opening author’s note captures the dichotomy of feeling:

I love Lego. I played with it as a child. My own children played with it. We still have boxes full of Lego in the attic, waiting to be handed down to future generations. Searching for lost Lego from a cargo spill began as a bit of fun, a treasure hunt with my children. Ultimately, it opened my eyes to all the rest of the plastic in the ocean.

Some of the book’s photography, while still beautiful, powerfully convey this darker message.

The end result is a captivating read, an almost stealth education in oceanography, and a call to at least awareness of the impact humans and our plastics are having on our environment.

It has not dampened my desire to perhaps one day go visit one of those Lego beaches, but now it is as much so I can do my part with some clean up of those beaches as it is to add some weirder items to my personal Lego collection.

In the meantime though, I am indeed more aware and more inclined to make better choices about my purchasing and disposal habits, even as far inland as I am. I found the details and information in this book fascinating, an extra layer of appreciation for my biggest non-bookish hobby, and highly recommend it to anyone else who might be a fan of Lego, science, oceans, human behaviour, and any number of other topics.

Happy reading and exploring!

– Winston