heathero621's review
informative
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
I listened to this audiobook about Octopuses and I wish that I would have read the book instead. I think that more of the information would have stuck in my brain more. I'm fascinated by octopuses and this book delivered on some interesting facts that I didn't know. There were parts that get bogged down and I would lose focus on the book. I sometimes the author would ramble on about other things that were tangentially related to octopuses that could've been cut out to make it more concise. Overall, I did enjoy the book.
hoosgracie's review
3.0
This was OK. It was interesting to learn more about octopuses, but it got bogged down at times.
cascadienne's review
3.0
I really enjoyed a good portion of this book - the sections where Dr. Scheel intertwines Indigenous culture and language with his scientific studies are fascinating. However, I really struggled to stay with the book past the 70% mark. The material was interesting but didn’t engage me as much as the prior section.
shelleyrae's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
3.25
“In Eyak, he told us, the word for octopus is tse-le:x-guh. Broken into its constituent parts, it means literally “rock under many-dwell” or “many things under a rock.”
David Scheel had no experience with octopuses, nor other ocean animals, when he led his first expedition in 1995 to study the Giant Pacific octopus, or Enteroctopus dofleini, in Prince William Sound. An ecologist, specialising in animal behaviour, habitat use, and the evolution of predator-prey relations, he became intrigued by the cephalopod after receiving a grant to study their viability as a harvestable food supply along the southern Alaska shores following the Exxon Valdez spill.
Many Things Under a Rock is an interesting account of Scheel’s subsequent 25 years of fieldwork and study focusing on the Giant Pacific octopus, from accompanying Alaska Native elders to count octopuses at low tide using green alder branches, to collecting octopus mucus to chart genetics, and discrete underwater monitoring. Chapters include scientific detail about the octopus’s biology, cognition, and social behaviour. Scheel also includes relevant cultural and historical perspectives on the octopus, particularly those involving Eyak and Sugpiaq tales and myths, and briefly discuses impending threats to the population of octopuses, like climate change and ocean pollution.
Scheel makes good use of personal anecdotes and observations that communicate his fascination with, and understanding of his subject, without compromising scientific detail. I do think the material could have been ordered better, and while at times I found the text to be a little dry, and the tone generally more professorial than personable, the writing is largely accessible.
Importantly I felt I learned a lot about the the Giant Pacific octopus in the wild that I didn’t know before. Many Things Under a Rock is an informative and engaging read.