xoxojillzian's review against another edition
Maybe some other time when I am more in the mood
alexrafinski's review
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.75
The first half of this book was as I expected - the author explains how he created some rock pools and describes the creatures that arrive in them and gives us some insights into scientific studies that suggest that many of these creatures have lives that are far more complex (and perhaps closer to our own) than most people believe. There were one or two philosophical paragraphs in each chapter that often bordered on the pretentious (in my opinion), but otherwise these were informative and enjoyable chapters. The second half of the book often seemed to bear no relation to the title of the book at all. Some chapters (e.g. rock) were clearly related to the seashore, but others didn't seem to be - one chapter covers the poverty and famine experienced by people living in the west of Scotland in the 17/1800s but other than the fact some of them used seaweed as a fertiliser, this didn't seem relevant to the topic of the book. There are also wholly philosophical chapters towards the end - phrases like "allowing no penetration of the You into the I, can only be a form of non-being, a gravity-less floating in an atomised and disconnected universe" just don't make sense to me.
joellie's review
slow-paced
2.0
This is not about tide pools. The first couple chapters do look into them briefly, covering 4 main inhabitants, but after that the book devolves into….. I’m not sure what. The author goes on tangents philosophical, historical and mythological, but doesn’t ever talk again about todepools until the very last chapter where he briefly. discusses seaweed and kelp. Very disappointing.
misosoupp31's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.25
This was interesting to listen to, but i wasn’t really sucked in and i’m not sure I absorbed very much knowledge haha. I also wanted it to be more informative about specific sea creatures, but it was very anthro focused in the second half
berylbird's review
challenging
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
I found this book phenomenal, so much more than I had hoped. It's so accessible, fairly easy to understand, yet presents new information along with some I have been exposed to before, but in new, entertaining ways.
I love the chapter entitled 'Prawn.' Pascal Fossat's experiments with crayfish groundbreaking.
<b> 'In this context,' Fossat wrote in Science, 'the crayfish represents a new model that might provide insights into the mechanisms underlying anxiety that have been conserved during evolution. Our results also emphasize the ability of an invertebrate to exhibit a state that is similar to a mammalian emotion but which likely arose early during the evolution of metazoans. </b>
And then comes the third chapter, 'Winkle,' where we enter the territory of fractals. Long of interest to me, Nicolson reports on fractals in ways that leaned toward philosophy and had me shaking my head in wonder and delight.
<b> This unmeasurability means that the Mandelbrot world is a set of dizzying spirals. The closer you look, the deeper it dives. Any examination of anything becomes an ever-growing, ever-inward plunge into the indefinable. The slower you go, the more there is to your journey. Pause for a moment and a place will pool out around you, not as an illusion but as a fact, in details it would not have had if you had not stopped to look. </b>
This passage created an image of time pooling around me. Who is to say it does not? When I stop and really attend to something, time seems to stop for a moment and expand out. Science or pseudoscience? Looks like science from where I'm sitting.
Adam Nicolson created his own tidal pools along the coast of Scotland, so that he could observe the intertidal life of the pool. His observations are accompanied by informative science and at times the views of philosophers and poets. I loved the mix, but if you think you're reading a book solely about nature and science, you might be disappointed. I was happily surprised!
I love the chapter entitled 'Prawn.' Pascal Fossat's experiments with crayfish groundbreaking.
<b> 'In this context,' Fossat wrote in Science, 'the crayfish represents a new model that might provide insights into the mechanisms underlying anxiety that have been conserved during evolution. Our results also emphasize the ability of an invertebrate to exhibit a state that is similar to a mammalian emotion but which likely arose early during the evolution of metazoans. </b>
And then comes the third chapter, 'Winkle,' where we enter the territory of fractals. Long of interest to me, Nicolson reports on fractals in ways that leaned toward philosophy and had me shaking my head in wonder and delight.
<b> This unmeasurability means that the Mandelbrot world is a set of dizzying spirals. The closer you look, the deeper it dives. Any examination of anything becomes an ever-growing, ever-inward plunge into the indefinable. The slower you go, the more there is to your journey. Pause for a moment and a place will pool out around you, not as an illusion but as a fact, in details it would not have had if you had not stopped to look. </b>
This passage created an image of time pooling around me. Who is to say it does not? When I stop and really attend to something, time seems to stop for a moment and expand out. Science or pseudoscience? Looks like science from where I'm sitting.
Adam Nicolson created his own tidal pools along the coast of Scotland, so that he could observe the intertidal life of the pool. His observations are accompanied by informative science and at times the views of philosophers and poets. I loved the mix, but if you think you're reading a book solely about nature and science, you might be disappointed. I was happily surprised!