The same day that I finished my first bird book of the year I stumbled across a blog asking people to join the author in reading 12 bird books in 2018. Sounds fun, so I'm going to give it a go. Here are the requirements:

At least 12 books, one book per month of 2018
Books must be about birding or birds (a broader topic of the natural world is okay as long as there is a connection with birds or birding)
Field guides don’t count
Choose authors you haven’t read before
At least three must be written by women
At least three must be written by an author from a country (or about a country) you haven’t read about before

I haven't figured out the full list of books that I'm going to read but this is where I'm at right now.

1. The Wonder of Birds: what they tell us about ourselves, the world, and a better future (complete 1/27/2018) by Jim Robbins --- I really loved this book. Each chapter was set up as its own essay about some aspect of birds, their evolution, or their relationships to humans. Many chapters left me wanting to know more and I have already started to dive into the bibliography for further reading.

2. Birding Without Borders: An Obsession, a Quest, and the Biggest Year in the World (completed 2/12/2018) by Noah Stryker --- Great book, which follows some of the highlights of Noah Stryker's World Big Year. He hits on some of the challenges, moments of joy, and amazing world of birds and birders throughout his attempt to see as many birds in one year as possible.

3. The Private Lives of Birds (completed 2/16/2018) by Bridget Stutchbury --- Very interesting book which borders the line between a birding travel log and a scientific paper. Numerous insights into the breeding behaviors of various birds and how humans have impacted and continue to impact those species.

4. The Naturalist's Notebook: An Observation Guide and Five-year Calendar-Journal for Tracking Changes in the Natural World Around You (competed 2/17/2018) by Nathaniel T. Wheelwright and Bernd Heinrick --- Okay so this one isn't really a bird book and it is pretty short but it is packed full of information and tips about keeping a naturalist notebook. It even goes takes it a few steps past just keeping a notebook and talks about experiments one could perform and ways to analyze your data. Not to mentioned that Bernd Heinrick's illustrations are amazing.

5. Ecology of a Cracker Childhood (completed 3/1/2018) by Janisse Ray --- This is the second time that I have read this book. The first time was while I was studying environmental philosophy in college about 10 years ago. I loved the book then and still find that it holds up very well. Then as now I love the mixture of family history and insight with the look at the land upon which they lived and grew. There is a heavy tint of sadness running throughout the book but overall it is clearly a book of love that Ray feels towards her family and the land she grew up in.

6. What the Robin Knows (completed 4/8/2018) by Jon Young --- To be honest, I liked a lot of this book and a lot of the ideas of this book, but I felt that it could have been so much shorter. So much shorter. There was a fair bit of repetition and some of the anecdotes just seemed a little longer than they needed to be. This book would be best as a long paper coupled with an actual field presentation. But since that isn't something we can all have or find, then this book is an okay substitute.

7. The Most Perfect Thing: Inside (and Outside) a Bird's Egg (completed 5/18/2018) by Tim Birkhead --- I enjoyed the combination of history and science which this book provided. It gave me a much better understanding of eggs.

8. North on the Wing: Travels with the Songbird Migration of Spring (completed 5/22/2018) by Bruse M. Beehler --- I enjoyed this book.

9. The Hidden Lives of Owls: The Science and Spirit of Nature's Most Elusive Birds (completed 5/30/2018) by Leigh Calvez --- The story of the Great Gray Owls near the end of the book made the entire thing worth it.

10. Mozart's Starling (completed 6/26/2018) by Lyanda Lynn Haupt --- This book is very well written and gives a fascinating look at a much maligned species.

11. Lost Among the Birds: Accidentally Finding Myself in One Very Big Year (completed 9/6/2018) by Neil Hayward --- I have to admit that I didn't really enjoy this book when I first started it. To be honest, it felt that he was attempting to punch a little bit above his weight. He was attempting to blend together time in a way which seems like it might be cool but wasn't pulled off very well, but as the book went on he backed off and focused more on the nature of his depression and relationships and how birding both helped and hindered him in those areas of his life. It was this, personal introspection which ultimately kept me reading. Overall, as a "birding" book this falls more into personal narrative sprinkled with birds rather than the other way around and therefore was a nice mix in an otherwise bird-focused list of books.

12. Call Collect, Ask for Birdman (completed 10/11/2018) by James Vardaman --- This isn't written all that well, but it is very interesting none-the-less. A historical document of one of the first people to attempt to see 700 birds in one year. While he didn't make it his way of going about it, his strategy team, and ranking of birds by probability of occurrence which is still used in a form today.

13. A Naturalist at Large: The Best Essays of Bernd Heinrich (completed 10/27/2018) by Bernd Heinrich --- This is the 3rd book by him I have read this year and it is fascinating. He does a wonderful job throughout his essays, showing his curiosity and observation skills. Great writer and great fun.

14. Kingbird Highway: The Biggest Year in the Life of an Extreme Birder (completed 11/29/2018) by Kenn Kaufman --- I really enjoyed this one. Particularly with his struggles with listing and simply viewing the birds. I could completely relate to the draw of listing and the draw to just view the birds and what is lost by focusing so much on listing. I'm not sure if gave me any answers to my own questions about listing but it was nice to read someone else's thoughts on the matter.

15. The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century Hardcover (completed 12/6/2018) by Kirk Wallace Johnson --- This is totally fascinating and crazy. Great read and interesting look into the fight between greed and science and how it lead a young fly tyer to rob Tring museum in England of hundreds of bird specimens, which were resold for fly tying.

16 Beaks, Bones and Bird Songs: How the Struggle for Survival Has Shaped Birds and Their Behavior (completed 12/23/2018) by Roger Lederer --- Like an entry level ornithology class, this books covers the basics of why birds are birds, some of their various adaptations, their threats, and their future.

Posted on June 21, 2018 01:42 AM by hallnatec