A review by mrsthrift
Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology by Lawrence Weschler
5.0
Good nonfiction teaches us something about the world. Great nonfiction teaches us something about ourselves. This book is great. I was so tapped into my own sense of wonder and curiosity while reading it. It's just awesome.
I picked this up because it was on Frank Chimero's reading list ( http://frankchimero.com/library/ ) and because I have a long-standing fascination with the Museum of Jurassic Technology dating back 10 full years. It is the best thing in Los Angeles. Also the MJT started my love affair with beekeeping. David Wilson's "Tell the Bees" exhibit gets credit for the two hives of honey bees in my backyard.
The book is a scant 109 pages long, but includes another 60 pages of footnotes which fill out the material in a satisfactory way. The book tells the history of museums ( Wunderkammern, too), David Wilson, creator of the MJT, his family, the museum, the story of the exhibits and a history of a European/American sense of wonder. I'm so glad I read it.
I picked this up because it was on Frank Chimero's reading list ( http://frankchimero.com/library/ ) and because I have a long-standing fascination with the Museum of Jurassic Technology dating back 10 full years. It is the best thing in Los Angeles. Also the MJT started my love affair with beekeeping. David Wilson's "Tell the Bees" exhibit gets credit for the two hives of honey bees in my backyard.
The book is a scant 109 pages long, but includes another 60 pages of footnotes which fill out the material in a satisfactory way. The book tells the history of museums ( Wunderkammern, too), David Wilson, creator of the MJT, his family, the museum, the story of the exhibits and a history of a European/American sense of wonder. I'm so glad I read it.