Average Rating: 
Rating: - Delightful
Mr. Cashwell has written a delightful book that all would enjoy. Regardless of whether or not you can tell the difference between a warbler and nuthatch, Cashwell enthusiasm for birding and his skill with the language will keep you chuckling throughout. If you love stories about family, friends, travel, and well, birds, this book is sure to please.
Rating: - Funny and informative too
Readers with no interest in food or nature are missing out on some of today's most humorous, personable and evocative writing. Take Peter Cashwell, for instance, an English teacher (why couldn't I have had a teacher like him?) and self-styled victim of Birding Compulsive Disorder, whose first book, a lively and very funny loose-knit collection of essays, begins a description of pelican flight: "If pelicans were drivers, they'd own huge, rectangular American luxury cars with plush interiors...."Or how about this perfect picture of Skimmers off a damp, chilly beach: "thirty or forty slim, scissorlike black birds wheeling around in the deepening gray; they looked like feathered knives tossed aloft by a master juggler." Cashwell, who cross-references an eclectic knowledge of popular culture (particularly rock music and comic books), serious literature, and research with his birding, divides the book into three sections: Birding, Birds, Birded. The first section leans toward the evolution of a birder - boyhood experiences with birds and mosquitoes in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, his later establishment of a life list (the move from casual to avid), migration counts, haiku from the Peterson Field Guide, and the serendipitous birding experiences of daily life, like the inherently funny attempted rescue of a vulture in the front yard. The second section focuses on individual birds - how the cardinal got its name, why the starling deserves our hostility, the "social cachet" of raptors, and the poignant, funny tale of the owl that saved Christmas. And the third leans a bit more to the outings of the experienced birder, trips to add to the life list in Delaware, Iowa, even Long Island, NY. These are particularly evocative and full of the surprises that Cashwell finds especially rewarding in birding. Those who pick this book up for the funny stories and incisive visuals of chilly, drizzly beautiful dawns, and then succumb to Cashwells' infectious enthusiasm will also find plenty of practical information on birding whens, wheres and hows. A word of warning though; casual backyard birders are likely to find themselves itching to get up at dawn and go tramping around bug-infested habitat with a pair of binoculars and a Peterson guide.
Rating: - "The Verb 'to Enchant'" is what this author does
I'm not into "birding" at all, and I just loved this book. Reading it was like having a smart, funny friend around to tell me fascinating stories. I didn't want the book to end. (How often does THAT happen?!) Of course, if you are a "birder" this book is something you will want to own. Also, it would make a terrific gift for anyone who enjoys a good read.
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