Product Description

A revised and expanded edition of Quammen’s first book of nonfiction, including the best of his recent work. “Lively writing about science and nature depends less on the offering of good answers, I think, than on the offering of good questions,” said David Quammen in the original introduction to Natural Acts. For more than two decades, he has stuck to that credo. In this updated version of his first essay collection, Quammen’s lively curiosity leads him from New Mexico to Romania, from the Congo to the Amazon, asking questions about mosquitoes (what are their redeeming merits?), dinosaurs (how did they change the life of a dyslexic Vietnam vet?), and cloning (can it save endangered species?). This expanded edition returns to print Quammen’s best-loved “Natural Acts” columns, which first appeared in Outside magazine in the early 1980s, and includes recent pieces such as “Planet of Weeds,” an influential Harper’s cover story. The new Natural Acts is an eye-opening journey that will please both Quammen fans and newcomers to his work. .

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #734457 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780393058055
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
David Quammen is a naturalist, writer, and literary scholar who can turn from William Faulkner to theories of demographic stochasticity on a dime--or a comma. Natural Acts, a collection of Quammen's columns by the same name from Outside magazine, highlights his many interests. In its pages, he touches on Malthusian population dynamics, the mating habits of butterflies and snakes, Tycho Brahe's quest for the stars, magnolia trees, whales, and deserts--to name just a few of the matters that pass beneath his bemused gaze. This is humanely wrought science writing at its best. --Gregory McNamee

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Quammen's writing style is so delightful that his content could almost be secondary. Happily, the author (most recently of The Reluctant Mr. Darwin) and his subjects are equally engaging: from a light-hearted trope on crows, whom he surmises are "too intelligent for their station in life"; to the dead-serious issue of human cloning, which he labels "perniciously stupid"; to a harrowing 453-day adventure in a remote Congolese forest Quammen shared with explorer J. Michael Fay. A revised and expanded version of the out-of-print 1985 original, this volume reprints a number of Quammen's columns from Outside magazine along with more lengthy articles culled from sources like Audubon, National Geographic and Smithsonian, including a solid selection of his post-1985 work. In his introduction he describes the new version as "a chimerical creature, like a griffin, bird-shaped in front with a mammalian caboose," but his topics-and his tone-aren't always so whimsical; in "Planet of Weeds," a 1998 piece published in Harper's, he predicts man-made ecological catastrophe: "Homo sapiens itself is the consummate weed." A book to ponder and enjoy.
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About the Author
David Quammen is the author of The Song of the Dodo, The Reluctant Mr. Darwin, and nine other books. When he is not traveling the world for National Geographic he lives in Bozeman, Montana.

Customer Reviews

Good subway reading
As one whose lack of knowledge in all things scientific is appalling, I picked up this book for one reason only: to be entertained. That happened without my stopping to think about it, but I actually learned a few things along the way-- things which may never serve any purpose in my professional life but which have come in handy in conversation lapses at parties. For instance, what is the one malady shared by sea cucumbers and humans-- and which animal is better equipped to deal with it? In World War II, why did the U.S. send thousands of bats plummeting to their deaths? Which animal has the most free time? And how about those timid octopi? Why so shy? This was such an enjoyable book. I didn't have to run for the dictionary once, I laughed out loud on occasion, and my friends think I know the strangest facts.

Great, for what it is
Quammen's first work in book form is merely a collection of his various magazine articles. You may be slightly annoyed when reading the book in a couple days because some subjects are repeated. But when you realize they appeared 2 or 3 yrs apart in a magazine, its easily excusable. Especially when the writing is so superb, timely (actually ahead of its time, since much of it was written 20+ years ago), interesting and educational. Some of the more dire environmental predictions havent exactly come true (YET), but that does not diminish the urgency of our ecological nightmare.

Read this book as a primer, then read Quammen's "Song of the Dodo," to gain some true knowledge.

Should be 6 Stars.......... Simply Great
Having read many science and nature writers, this was my first experience reading Quammen. I was thrilled. Quammen is a fabulous writer. This book is a collection of Quammen's essays on topics ranging from Sea Cucumber to cockroaches to crows to amimal rights to deserts to rivers to turtles and much more. I doubt if you'll find such a rich, diverse and eclectic collection of natural writings anywhere else. Must read and own.