Seize Your Copy The Book Of Barely Imagined Beings: A 21st Century Bestiary Devised By Caspar Henderson Accessible As Ebook

got this book for my birthday, having lusted after it since my sisterinlaw got it for Christmas, but it wasn't exactly what I expected.

Firstly, the title, Barely Imagined Beings: Ast Century Bestiary, is very misleading, It's not. It has chapter titles like "axolotl", "right whale" and "dolphin", but barely mentions the animals, They are instead used as a springboard for philosophical musings about global warming, technology and the future of humanity, One chapter is on photography, another on artificial intelligence, regardless of what the chapter titles are, Animal facts sadly only make up aboutof each chapter, and it makes me angry,
That's not to say that it doesn't cover a lot of interesting topics, but it's definitely not what it says on the tin, The honey badger may not care that its chapter holds very few honey badger facts, but I do, I wanted to learn about animals,
However, if you enjoy casual philosophy and literary quotes, this is your goto book,
The layout, typography, design and illustrations happen to be excellent,
In the end, there are some good musings in here, and a jokey way of writing, but I'm still in need of a book of obscure animal facts.
This is a gorgeous book, and a joy to read, despite the dire message that is woven throughout that we have entered the Anthropocene and are rapidly destroying species and biospheres at an unprecedented rate.
Henderson uses the various creatures of each chapter as a launching point to take free ranging discussions into a variety of topics centered around biology, evolution,

conservation, pollution, technology, and biodiversity.
The messages here are scary, and will not make those of certain political ideology happy, but they are important messages, Unfortunately, I think these messages will continue to fall on deaf ears, ignored through outright denial, and the problems will remain unaddressed until it is far too late.
Nevertheless, this book provides an amazing and beautiful insight into the stunning variety of creatures that have evolved on this planet, I don't usually write reviews but I feel like this deserves a justification of why I rated it three, since I was concerned three is quite harsh for a book that is clearly very well researched.


The issue I had with this book was that it has SUCH an excellent premise that I should have been fascinated by, However, the premise was not remotely what the book delivered,

The alphabetical nature of the book seemed as though it was completely redundant, as certain animals were listed by their English, Latin or native names depending on which fit better, there was no consistency to it.
For example, honey badger one would think would go under H, but it's listed as kiriphako, which allows it to neatly fit under K, Similarly, Goblin Shark should go under G, but instead it's listed under U for a chapter entitled: 'In Search of a Unicorn: Goblin Shark, ' Then X gets two separate chapters despite the fact the rest of the book is one 'being' per chapter, which seems unbalanced,

Another reason the individual chapters are completely redundant as a layout is because, as other reviewers have said, the author delves into incredibly long tangents that often don't circle back to the original point.
It felt as though I were lucky to get two pages in a chapter dedicated to the animal in question, then the nextpages would be struggling through almost completely unrelated subject matter in the hopes that it would pay off at the end of the chapter, which it very rarely did.


Another issue I had was that occasionally I would read a brief mention of a dinosaur or something that I would find very interesting, only to look it up and find that the description given in the book was something that had been disproven years ago this led me, perhaps unfairly, to question the veracity of the rest of the book.


The bright side is that the book is visually beautiful, it DOES have an excellent premise even if it doesn't entirely deliver, and generally it is very well researched and written by an author who is clearly passionate about the pursuit of knowledge.
If it had more editing so it focused far more tightly on the subject matter at hand and retained consistency of chapters, it would be a five star book.
"Still, one thing seems clearer to me than ever: we are only fully human when we act as if the life beyond us matters.
"

Ova knjiga nije striktno o životinjama, u mnogim poglavljima je životinja samo asocijacija za neka otkrića ili probleme sa kojima se svet suočava.
Henderson je najviše predstavio morska stvorenja, verovatno zato što o njima obično najmanje i znamo, Nisu sva bića u ovoj knjizi ugrožena, ali kako autor navodi, to ne znači da ne treba podići svest o njima i da im neće pretiti ekstinkcija.
U svakom poglavlju se našlo nešto što me je dodatno zaintrigiralo i navelo na dalje guglanje i istraživanje, Jedino što ovom izdanju fali je više slika stvorenja, pogotovo u boji, Evrimsel biyoloji üzerine çok eğlenceli, bilgilendirici bir popüler bilim kitabı, Okurken Youtube ve Google araştırmalarıyla o kadar çok zaman geçiriyorsunuz kisayfalık kitabı bitirmek on gün sürebiliyor, Kitap kendini dar bir alanla sınırlandırmayıp sosyal psikolojiden tarihe geniş ilgi alanlarına da açık bir ilgi alanına yaymış.

Çeviri Deniz Keskin tarafından yapılmış, Popüler bilim kitabına Nabokov çevrisi özeni gösterilmiş, Türkçesi çok başarılı, Yalın ve zengin bir dille çeviri yapılmış, Ellere gönüllere sağlık, Nihayet Metis Yayınlarını da isabetli seçimi ve özenli baskı ve tasarımı için kutlamak gerek, Caspar Henderson'sst Century Bestiary is not an encyclopaedia, as some people might expect, but something more in the medieval tradition of bestiaries, mixing information with philosophical and moral comment.
It's interesting, and Henderson's ideas are well expressed, and I imagine a full colour version of the book must be stunning my own is the paperback, all in black and white, but I seem to recall seeing a colour edition.
It's definitely not all that scientific, in places, relying on anecdote and going off on tangents into what an organism might have to teach us.


One of Henderson's major concerns is the environment, and the preservation of Earth's current biodiversity, for which he makes a good case, Ultimately, if your interest is science, this will probably be unsatisfying: it's here to demonstrate some of the scope of biodiversity, not to explain it, or even to go very deeply into any one scientific principle though it touches on plenty.


I do wish it had been better edited the typos and such are extremely distracting, All in all, it isn't quite as good as I'd expected from the rave reviews and my quick glance over it in the shop, but it is interesting.
I'm always a fan of books of eclectic information and this was a pretty fun read, I knew at least a tiny bit about most of the species Henderson covered, but it was fun to learn more, Henderson mixed information about the species with information about the wider world a book about beings and being, and while this wasn't my favourite part, since I found it got dry in places, it was a cool idea.


Some parts were a bit too much or too detailed for me, but I understand how others may appreciate it, However, my biggest qualm is that there were a few parts that seemed to be missed by an editor, and I always hate finding these things in nonfiction books.
If there are simple mistakes span is not the past tense of spin, and gender/sex cannot be used interchangeably in the context of reptilian biology I always wonder how accurate the rest of the book is.
. . It's definitely still a fun read, though, An AZ listing of some generally little known creatures which the author uses as springboards for more general musings,

The author chose an eclectic and unusual sampling of animals and part of the fun of the book is seeing where he goes with them.
Not a book to buy if you want detailed zoological information, but an interesting and diverting set of essays about life, the universe and everything.
We humans could perhaps be pardoned for our anthrocentric view of the world until the arrival of the Gutenberg press, After that, with the widespread dissemination of ideas pretty well taken care of, we have much less excuse, Then came the Internet, the Blue Planet, and a host of other modern wonders, and everyone has the option to know everything the limits of time and patience aside, of course.
Thus it was with considerable surprise that I learned, by reading this book, that I only had the barest beginning of an understanding of the weird and wonderful living things sequestered on this unremarkable planet located on a distant arm of a minor galaxy.
Things that live in slime, that are smaller than the period at the end of this sentence, that change their sex at will, that live in vents, and can survive outer space the list goes on an on.
Don't read this book if you need to hang onto the belief that people are special and the center of the universe, Do read it if you want to wander, with a wonderful writer, through a few of the incredible byways of life, and ponder the varieties of ways that chemicals can combine to produce wiggly things.
Ispirato da "Il libro degli esseri immaginari" di Borges, Henderson prova a creare un bestiario per il nuovo millennio, parlandoci di ventisette animali reali ma "assai più bizzarri di quelli immaginari": "a malapena immaginabili", appunto.

Nell'introduzione l'Autore dichiara di voler esplorare attraverso "accostamenti improvvisi" cosa ci lega a quegli animali, utilizzando gli strumenti della biologia evolutiva e riflettendo sul le conseguenze del comportamento umano sul loro habitat e sul pianeta tutto.

Henderson per primo riconosce che alcune "analogie e digressioni hanno poco a che fare con gli animali in sé" e che gli esiti di quegli accostamenti sono talvolta "un po' forzati".
Il problema vero, però, è che quelle "analogie e digressioni" sono anche tantissime e, spesso, interminabili, . .
Il risultato finale è una lettura davvero faticosa, peraltro corredata da un apparato iconografico del tutto insufficiente, Un difetto non da poco visto il costo del libro, This would have been far more interesting if there had been more about the animals as opposed to digression after digression showing me how well read and travelled the author was.




Some of it is interesting and some of it is, oh no, here we go again,
Par šo grāmatu biju dzirdējis jau sen, Pirmo reizi viņa man acīs iekrita, kad, gadā tā iekļuva Royal Society Winton Prize šortlistā, Šķita tāda laba grāmata par dzīvniekiem un ekoloģiju, Taču lasāmā bija daudz, un grāmatas iegāde atlikās, Šogad ar viņu sastapos grāmatu veikalā, pašķirstīju un sapratu vajag izlasīt, Tas bija jūnijā, līdz lasīšanai tiku tikai piecus mēnešus vēlāk,

Šī grāmata ir veidota kā moderns bestiārijs, Lai arī anotācijā rakstīts no Aksolota līdz Zebraszivīm, grāmata nav tikai par divdesmit septiņiem dzīvniekiem, Šī grāmata ir veidota pēc viduslaiku bestiāriju parauga, Stāsts ir ne tikai par kādu konkrētu radību, bet arī satur diezgan nesaistītas tēmas, kuras sevī lielākoties ietver ekoloģiju, cilvēku ietekmi uz dabu.
Autors nevairās arī no anekdotiskiem notikumu atstāstiem un nepiemirst iekļaut arī pa kādai morālai pamācībai, Taču vislabākais ir tas, ka daļa no pieminētajiem dzīvniekiem pārsit viduslaiku iedomātos briesmoņus, Dabas iespējas ir daudz lielākas nekā cilvēka fantāzija, un bieži vien daba ir daudz skaistāka un dīvaināka, nekā mēs spējam iedomāties.


Šī grāmata noteikti ir viena no labākajām grāmatām par dabaszinātnēm, kuru pēdējā laikā ir nācies lasīt.
Viņā ir viss, ko es sagaidu no grāmatas par dzīvniekiem,

Pirmkārt, tie ir zīmējumi un fotogrāfijas, ir taču tik forši, kad sākot lasīt nodaļu tu galveno vaininieku vari apskatīt mākslinieciskā izpildījumā.
Man gan nav krāsainā ilustrētā versija biezajos vākos, tur skats noteikti ir daudz iespaidīgāks,

Otrkārt, stāstījuma stils, Tas neaprobežojas tikai ar faktu atstāstīšanu vien, Nu tā kā enciklopēdijās vidējais svars, izplatības areāls, grūtniecības ilgums un metiens, Reizēm šie fakti tiek pieminēti, bet, ja nav pārāk interesanti, tad tie ir palikuši aiz borta, Toties autors apzinoties papīra kā mēdija formāta ierobežotību, brīvi tekstā dod padomus kā internetā atrast visforšākos video, ko par zvēreļiem vien var dabūt.


Treškārt, dzīvnieki ir ielikti kontekstā, Šis konteksts ir cilvēks un tā ietekme uz ekosistēmām, Cilvēkam ir dots ne tikai saprast un izpētīt citas sugas, viņam ir dots arī tās iznīcināt un noslaucīt no zemes virsmas.
Tādēļ laiku pa laikam stāsts novirzās uz šķietami nesaistītām tēmām, Kā stāstot par japāņu makakiem pēkšņi sākt runāt par tirāniju un elitārismu, Taču visas atkāpes ir par tēmu, Kas to būtu domājis, ka foršie Japānas makaki, kurus parasti rāda vannojoties siltajos avotos ziemas spelgonī, patiesībā ir tikai izredzētākie no makakiem.
Pārējais bars lielākoties sēž un drebinās turpat netālu sniegā,

Saliekot visu šo kopā un autora spēju atrast interesantus faktus, Pie tam viņam piemīt tā retā spēja interesantās lietas interesanti pastāstīt, Jā varbūt ne visas šīs interesantās lietas ir zinātniski pamatotas, bet kādēļ gan neļaut savai fantāzijai izmest līkumu.
Galu gala lasām taču bestiāriju nevis ievadu zooloģijas kursā, Un veids, kā autors ir iemanījies iespiest iekšā faktus, kurus nekādi nav sanācis iekļaut stāstījumā, ir izcils, Šeit ir nevis zemsvītras piezīmes, bet lappušu malas piezīmes, kurās var atrast daudzas interesantas lietas, piebildes un lietas, kuras būtu grēks nepieminēt.


Izlasot šo grāmatu, mans personīgais ieguvums ir daudzu balto plankumu aizpildīšanu gan vēsturē, gan bioloģijā, Piemēram, nekad nebiju iedomājies par vālu medību industriālajiem apmēriem un to ietekmi uz vaļu populāciju, Tas savukārt samazināja vaļu mēslu nonākšanu okeānā, kas savukārt ir laba barotne fitoplanktonam, kurš savukārt ražo skābekli.
Pasaulē nekas nav tā pat viss ir sasaistīts kopējā sistēmā un šī grāmata lieliski ilustrē šo sistēmu no dažādiem aspektiem.
Skumjākais ir tas, ka iespējams esam pēdējā paaudze, kad zemes klimats ir vēl kaut cik normāls, Un es nemaz nepieminu murēnu, kura uzbrūkot atvemj otru žokļu pāri labākam satvērienam vai sūkli Tetrahymena thermophilia ar septiņiem iespējamiem dzimumiem unveidu kā radīt pēcnācējus.


Liekunoballēm, Ja es pie šādas grāmatas tiktu bērnu dienās, tad droši vien nekad neizlaistu to ārā no rokām, Noteikti zinātu daudz vairāk nekur lāgā nevajadzīgus faktus un, iespējams, tomēr būtu kļuvis par arheologu, Ja interesē pasaule mums apkārt, noteikti izlasiet, dabūsiet bagātu faktoloģisku materiālu, uzzināsiet daudzus interesantus atgadījumus un pie reizes labi pavadīsiet laiku!
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