Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong
8 reviews
alyxinthestars's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death
aileron's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death
sarahweyand's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.25
I have told a lot of people that this book is like the Planet Earth TV series in literature form, and I really think that's the best way to describe it. I learned so much while reading, more than almost any nonfiction book I've read this year. Yong is a wonderful author and is so thorough, yet readable. It takes a great amount of work to convey the senses through text, and I think he did a fantastic job. I could easily see this book being turned into a miniseries.
An Immense World is certainly not light reading. While Yong succeeds in breaking down complex topics and ideas into digestible chunks of information, this isn't exactly a beach read. At times I felt the pace was a little slow, and I occasionally felt like I was drowning in new concepts..
If you're willing to get down an dirty with a dense but beautiful text about some new and familiar animals, this is absolutely the book for you.
An Immense World is certainly not light reading. While Yong succeeds in breaking down complex topics and ideas into digestible chunks of information, this isn't exactly a beach read. At times I felt the pace was a little slow, and I occasionally felt like I was drowning in new concepts..
If you're willing to get down an dirty with a dense but beautiful text about some new and familiar animals, this is absolutely the book for you.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death and Animal cruelty
immovabletype's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death
zosiablue's review
adventurous
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
This was wonderful. Friend Kat said it was revolutionary and I agree with them - a nature book written entirely in the animals' world, instead of seeing their world through human eyes, creates an entirely new kind of empathy. This had the same effect as mindfulness for me - the gorgeous feeling of, OH! The world is so much bigger and varied than my own lens. So much more interesting and magical than I could ever experience in one lifetime. What a peaceful feeling.
There was a LOT of research crammed in. It's better to go in and let it flow through you instead of trying to hold on to any particular bit. You won't remember everything. There's too much. But you WILL remember the feeling of, ah, OK, life is so much more than this. ✨
There was a LOT of research crammed in. It's better to go in and let it flow through you instead of trying to hold on to any particular bit. You won't remember everything. There's too much. But you WILL remember the feeling of, ah, OK, life is so much more than this. ✨
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death
erebus53's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
Ed Jong is clearly a man who is good at listening. None is quite so apt for describing the beauties of natural science as a person who is an experienced journalist and has a sincere curiosity about our world. By necessity the book is broken up in to useful topics, but the author fully explains how animals perceive their world, is not as cut and dried as this division might suggest.
Through the senses of bats, whales, dogs, electric knife-fish, octopi, birds, spiders and more, we look at the different ways that animals perceive things, and compare and contrast those methods with our own perceptive tools.
The narrative in this book is modern and eschews the previous anthropocentric view of our world as much as is practical. Animals who can see light that we cannot are not "receiving secret messages", they are simply interpreting things.. that our biology treats as unimportant information. As a modern collection of anecdotes, philosophical ideas, and scientific findings, it wasn't lost on me that many of the researchers were women. Jong's default human was not a man, and that when he refers to the average range of human perceptions he speaks explicitly of "sighted humans" and "hearing humans". In a book that champions the diversity of life, he is quick to clarify that many researchers of sensory science also have atypical senses, and that atypicalities are generally only considered Disabilities because of the way our society is structured to meet the needs of a typical majority (for more info, search: Social Model of Disability). I also love that when he attributes findings and scientific work he works to mention all the people who conducted an experiment, rather than just the top billing man on the paper.
I love that the audiobook is narrated by the author. This typically makes the text scan better because the narrator understands the text better, and can pronounce all the names. Ed Jong has an interesting accent which is predominantly British, but has some odd affectations. His habit of saying "toward" as if he were saying "to word" made me smile rather than wince. I was (perhaps overly) joyous to hear him pluralise non-English words in the way of the original language, especially in Latin and German (eg. Umwelt and Umwelten)
I found many of the descriptive passages in this book rapturous. I completely fell in with the vibe of the book and it resonated with my philosophy of life. It probably helped that I was fairly familiar with a lot of the animals and even pop-culture references that were made.
I've already recommended this book to a lot of my friends.
Through the senses of bats, whales, dogs, electric knife-fish, octopi, birds, spiders and more, we look at the different ways that animals perceive things, and compare and contrast those methods with our own perceptive tools.
The narrative in this book is modern and eschews the previous anthropocentric view of our world as much as is practical. Animals who can see light that we cannot are not "receiving secret messages", they are simply interpreting things.. that our biology treats as unimportant information. As a modern collection of anecdotes, philosophical ideas, and scientific findings, it wasn't lost on me that many of the researchers were women. Jong's default human was not a man, and that when he refers to the average range of human perceptions he speaks explicitly of "sighted humans" and "hearing humans". In a book that champions the diversity of life, he is quick to clarify that many researchers of sensory science also have atypical senses, and that atypicalities are generally only considered Disabilities because of the way our society is structured to meet the needs of a typical majority (for more info, search: Social Model of Disability). I also love that when he attributes findings and scientific work he works to mention all the people who conducted an experiment, rather than just the top billing man on the paper.
I love that the audiobook is narrated by the author. This typically makes the text scan better because the narrator understands the text better, and can pronounce all the names. Ed Jong has an interesting accent which is predominantly British, but has some odd affectations. His habit of saying "toward" as if he were saying "to word" made me smile rather than wince. I was (perhaps overly) joyous to hear him pluralise non-English words in the way of the original language, especially in Latin and German (eg. Umwelt and Umwelten)
I found many of the descriptive passages in this book rapturous. I completely fell in with the vibe of the book and it resonated with my philosophy of life. It probably helped that I was fairly familiar with a lot of the animals and even pop-culture references that were made.
I've already recommended this book to a lot of my friends.
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal cruelty and Blood
kirstym25's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death
purplepenning's review
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
Fascinating examination of the world as other animals perceive it — and at how we unintentionally limit our understanding of it and of them. There's something here for every animal lover or nature enthusiast, including intriguing info about the largest mammals to the smallest insects. The audiobook is also outstanding — the author narrates it himself and his enthusiasm is evident but not distracting. Plus, his British accent is easy on these American ears and my attention refused to wander as long as there was a chance he'd say "zebra" with a short "e" again, which he does right through to the end. :-)
Content Warnings
Minor: Cursing, Animal death, and Animal cruelty
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