Simon Barnes

Simon Barnes shares 23 chapters of "magical" tricks or spells to re-wild yourself. These spells will help the reader become more aware of the natural world around them. These are actually simple tricks that are told in an entertaining collection of short chapters. A word of caution. The author is British, so some of the advice and examples reference butterflies and other things that are not the same as the United States, but a little personal research can be used to adapt to our location. The chapters are still informative and fun to read.… (plus d'informations)

Simon Barnes picks 100 animals which had been important in our history - and then writes an essay about each of them. They have served different roles, some of them being important because of what they are and some because of what people had done to them (the poor dodo for example). Most of the animals in the book are still with us but quite a lot are gone or on the verge of being extinct. Most essays tell you something about the biology and sociology of the animal but the bulk of the text is about their influence on humanity (and ours on them). Some of the choices are very specific and then the text tell you that they stand for a whole group of animals (the singing birds for example); some appear to be more generic.

The book is international in some ways but the Britishness of the author comes through in places, especially when dealing with animals which are present on the islands. There is also a very strong conservation slant to most of the essays - but not the "we need to save all" variety - it is the more moderate approach which takes into consideration what will happen to the habitats that wins the day in the narrative.

And through all of the essays runs the big thread of habitat protection - no matter what ends up killing off an animal type, it always comes down to that - destroyed habitats make it impossible for them to survive. And if we keep on carrying on as before, we will keep losing them.

The publisher printed the book on heavy enough stock for the illustrations and photographs (most essays have at least 3 of them) to look wonderful. The author chose a mix of classical art, photography and modern art and that in a combination with the somewhat short essays (4 to 6 pages) makes that a wonderful book to just open at a random place and enjoy. There are some cross references - both forward and backwards but even if you do not follow them, the essays work on their own.

The book won't give you as much information for every animal as their respective Wikipedia articles or a proper book about them but it is a nice primer and a nice book to slowly work through.… (plus d'informations)