⇒ PDF The Song of the Dodo Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction David Quammen 9780684827124 Books

The Song of the Dodo Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction David Quammen 9780684827124 Books

Download As PDF : The Song of the Dodo Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction David Quammen 9780684827124 Books

The Song of the Dodo Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction David Quammen 9780684827124 Books

This is one of the best books I have ever read. Quammen is a master science writer, on the level of Sagan, Asimov, and Schaller. This book belongs in every public library and should be required reading in high school and college science classes. Wonderful; poetic; informative. Quammen has the gift of making difficult concepts easy to grasp. He provides fascinating insights to many of the lesser-known scientists whose work has been largely eclipsed by more famous luminaries such as Darwin, without doing disservice to Darwin himself. I love this book.


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The Song of the Dodo Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction David Quammen 9780684827124 Books Reviews

Quammen is truly becoming one of my favorite authors. As a naturalist, the topics he writes about are interesting to me, but that's only a fraction of his charm. He also has a very anecdotal and "friendly" writing style that I find very engaging. How can I not be charmed by a man who concludes his chapter on biogeographic logarithms with, "Hello, are you still with me? Sorry about all that." He knows his audience.

It took me a long time to read this book not because it wasn't interesting, but because it covered a wide-range of related topics. It was as if several good books had been rolled into one.

The book focuses on biogeography. Quammen talks about the great people who've contributed to the field (beginning with Darwin and Wallace, of course,) and also talks about island extinctions (as they have been much more numerous than continental extinctions).

I found the stories about Darwin and Wallace fascinating. The chapters on rare, extinct, and (unfortunately) introduced species were the best part of the book for me. He also talks about recent studies and debates like SLOSS. Then Quammen ends the book with his own trip to Aru after years of carrying around a copy of Wallace's The Malay Archipelago.

My one criticism is in regards to the edition due to the page numbers and percentage. When I finished the book, it said I was only 60% done even though the chapters before the glossary end around page 600 out of 695. That's not 60% .

I recommend this book to anyone with interest in islands, habitat carrying capacity, and the history of natural sciences. It's a sober topic and an eye-opening read, but Quammen throws in some of his charm and wit as needed and expected.
This is a great book for anyone who has started a journey learning about Evolution but wants to understand a crucial ingredient that led to the discovery of Evolution; Island Biogeography. David Quammen is a gifted writer that understands his readers want the soul of the science rather than algebraic formulas, but who can handle key concepts. This book details a lot about pivotal figures of biogeography from Alfred Wallace to Robert MacArthur and EO Wilson, taking you into the history of it and then later expanding on issues of conservation that biogeography relates to. It’s also filled with tearful episodes that I won’t spoil, but needless to say that this book is a serious call to action for anyone to do their part.
This is surely one of the most important books on the environment to come out of the latter part of the 20th Century. It is highly readable for anyone who is really interested in how we have come to the environmental place we're at today, particularly in regard to species extinction. If you are familiar with Quammen's works then you know that he is a very gifted writer and explainer. In Song of the Dodo, he teaches by combining history, environmental science, personal experience and anecdotes--not to mention his wonderfully impish "gossip columnist" quality when he describes personalities and academic battles over major biological questions. That said, he is always respectul of the scientists he interviews and of their work and goes to great lengths to really understand it so that he can give his readers the most accurate version possible of the material he covers. Quammen traveled extensively to research and write this tome, visiting many islands and archipelagos that were, and I assume still are, used as models for how extinction happens on continents when we break up the natural landscape, leaving only patches of it that become like islands for the wildlife living on those patches. There is just so very much in this book! You will read both heartening and heartbreaking stories of attempts to save species on the brink of extinction. So much of this book seems deeply personal for Quammen and for the people he engages with. It is long--about 600 pages--but I swear I learned more than 600 pages worth in reading it. Toward the end of the book I could feel that little shift in my mind, that feeling of having broadened and deepened my understanding of something very important. I am excited to move next to Quammen's new book, The Tangled Tree. I would also recommend a new book to read in conjunction with Song of the Dodo, and that is The Human Planet How We Created the Anthropocene.
If I knew what "tour du force" meant, it is probably something one could reasonably say about this book.

Great read. A pleasurable meandering through an interesting and important topic for species conservation.

If you prefer books that are short and to the point, then this probably isnt for you. At over 600 long pages, it does take Quammen an exceptional number of words to get to a fairly concise and concrete point. In fact, early in the book (chapter 2 maybe) he spoils the ending and that one sentence spoiler basically says it all.

That said, the book as a whole does a very admirable job in walking through a variety of very interesting and informative material to reinforce the entire concept for the inevitable premise to which it is all directed.

The book reads as a part history, part travelogue, and part science text, with a little humor and a lot of introspection thrown in to round it out.

Read this expecting the journey instead of a tailored economy of words in service of the thesis, and enjoy it as you go.

Quammen is engaging and this is a very good read.
This is one of the best books I have ever read. Quammen is a master science writer, on the level of Sagan, Asimov, and Schaller. This book belongs in every public library and should be required reading in high school and college science classes. Wonderful; poetic; informative. Quammen has the gift of making difficult concepts easy to grasp. He provides fascinating insights to many of the lesser-known scientists whose work has been largely eclipsed by more famous luminaries such as Darwin, without doing disservice to Darwin himself. I love this book.