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ijudgebooksbycovers's review against another edition
3.0
A five star book on the history of whaling with quite a misleading title. Excellent if you like Moby Dick and/or slaughtering animals.
kdraw333's review against another edition
5.0
This is an amazing, rich and heartfelt exploration of our troubled relationship with a mysterious, sentient and highly emotionally-intelligent species that lives in an alien world beneath us. I didn't really pay much attention to whales before reading this. I knew people wanted to save them from extinction, that hippies listened to their songs, etc. but it didn't really hit home how we are such brutal little gnats killing off these gentle giants when we understand so little about them. I wonder if our relationship to sentient animals will change the more we study our own consciousness and appreciate different ways of evolving and being.
librarianonparade's review against another edition
4.0
This isn't my usual kind of reading - as much as I like whales I wouldn't say I was so fascinated by them as to want to read an entire book on them - and yet this had me spellbound. Philip Hoare has a wonderful, poetic way of writing, and his own love for and fascination with whales come over with every word. This isn't just a scientific book about whales; it's an exploration of the whale in human history, religion, literature. He talks about Melville's Moby-Dick as much as whaling and the whale itself, and it just works. It's an incredibly moving read at times too, particularly when he talks about what man has done to the whale. This is a wonderful book.
lauracooper's review against another edition
4.0
A wonderful, elegiacal if not completely scientific study of man's relations to whales, which is mostly the exploitation of them.
helenelgin's review against another edition
5.0
I'm not a big reader of non-fiction, but I LOVE whales. This book is beautifully written, fascinating, packed full of passion and a wonderful read. Is very, very close to making it into the desert island book list.
librarianonparade's review against another edition
4.0
This isn't my usual kind of reading - as much as I like whales I wouldn't say I was so fascinated by them as to want to read an entire book on them - and yet this had me spellbound. Philip Hoare has a wonderful, poetic way of writing, and his own love for and fascination with whales come over with every word. This isn't just a scientific book about whales; it's an exploration of the whale in human history, religion, literature. He talks about Melville's Moby-Dick as much as whaling and the whale itself, and it just works. It's an incredibly moving read at times too, particularly when he talks about what man has done to the whale. This is a wonderful book.