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plantbirdwoman's review
5.0
I am an avid birder and bird blogger, so when this book was recommended to me by a fellow birder and bird blogger, I decided to get it. That was almost a year ago, and it languished on my to-be-read shelf for many months. Finally, last week, I picked it up to read, and, afterwards, I could hardly put it down.
It is, in short, extremely well-written, and it is a compelling read for anyone with an interest in birds and in the history of birding and the conservation movement.
Mr. Rosen takes birding as his "jumping off point" but, from there, he launches himself into many areas of human thought and endeavor - from science, religion, philosophy, sociology, to natural and human history. You name it; he touches on it here. It is a wide-ranging essay on the human condition as well as the condition of birds in today's world.
I would unhesitatingly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in birds and in their influence on human history.
It is, in short, extremely well-written, and it is a compelling read for anyone with an interest in birds and in the history of birding and the conservation movement.
Mr. Rosen takes birding as his "jumping off point" but, from there, he launches himself into many areas of human thought and endeavor - from science, religion, philosophy, sociology, to natural and human history. You name it; he touches on it here. It is a wide-ranging essay on the human condition as well as the condition of birds in today's world.
I would unhesitatingly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in birds and in their influence on human history.
jbracken's review
3.0
Let me first state that this book has opened my eyes to the world of bird-watching in Central Park, and I thank Rosen for that. However, this book needed a heavier hand from the editor (the pseudo-neuroscientific speculation accounting for why men birdwatch and women don't was simply awful and should have been stricken from the very earliest drafts). Altogether too long and tangential, and although I found many of the rabbit-holes Rosen leaps down interesting, the book just didn't come together in the way it should have.
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