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therogueslife's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
4.0
aleks_png's review against another edition
4.0
Good but honestly I would’ve loved to read more in depth about cephalopods
fraeyalise's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
2.0
I liked learning more about cephalopod life, but this book is incredibly repetitive and rambling. It is continuously referencing other chapters, complete with recaps of those chapters. At the end there's a "save the oceans" message tacked on that seems a bit disingenuous. Don't get me wrong, I'm all here for saving the oceans. But it seemed a little... weird that we are going through all this philosophy just so he can say "by the way, save the oceans".
It feels like the author was enraptured by cephalopods (and really, who wouldn't be?), but his day job is philosophy, so this is a way to explore his work and his hobby at the same time. I think this would be much better as a lecture given at a school instead of a book. I learned a little about evolution, about nature, and about cephalopods. My favorite part by far was when he discusses studies of octopuses and the octopus mischief they enact on their researchers.
Note for the e-book version: this book has no footnotes and at the end, the publishers just tell you to search individual phrases in the book to figure out what the footnote is talking about. That's absolutely ridiculous! That's not how footnotes work.
It feels like the author was enraptured by cephalopods (and really, who wouldn't be?), but his day job is philosophy, so this is a way to explore his work and his hobby at the same time. I think this would be much better as a lecture given at a school instead of a book. I learned a little about evolution, about nature, and about cephalopods. My favorite part by far was when he discusses studies of octopuses and the octopus mischief they enact on their researchers.
Note for the e-book version: this book has no footnotes and at the end, the publishers just tell you to search individual phrases in the book to figure out what the footnote is talking about. That's absolutely ridiculous! That's not how footnotes work.
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death
You can't talk about researching animals without talking about the history of the horrible treatment of animals by researchers.smithmick14's review against another edition
Really went on a hard stint of reading books about octopuses here. This one was my favorite of that little rabbithole though. Godfrey-Smith's philosophy background really gave this a special added touch and felt like he had the right questions in mind while considering how the evolutionary psychology of humans can be enlightened by considering something so absolutely...other from us.