It may be love when you receive as a birthday gift a great book about cephalopods. It is definitely love when you receive a knit kraken as a valentine’s day present. To say that squids are part of my geek cultural identity is an understatement, which is why I was excited to get Kraken: The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid by Wendy Williams.
Wendy William’s book travels from prehistory to early America right on to tomorrow, from Monterey to Australia to Massachusetts, tracking the natural history of the squid and octopus. This book shines when discussing the biology of cephalopods: their evolution, the roots of life, their natural history. From the structure of the eye, to neuroscientists experimenting with squid axons, to the nature of cognition, this book really shines. The scientific excitement she brings to the subject makes this an exciting read and places it in the top of science writing. If all science writing were this good we’d have more people reading about science.
Where she falls flat is any attempt to talk about cephalopods in culture and especially modern culture. Her historical treatment is incredibly western (personally I probably should be thankful she doesn’t touch on octopus images in Ukiyo-e) and stops in the 70s. She obviously hasn’t heard of the internet, because frankly she doesn’t talk about the huge cult of the squid that’s pretty much everywhere.
So, read this book if you want more cool science than you can shake a feeding tentacle at. But skip over the cultural ruminations.
This woollen octopus is looking so nice and became a nice decoration piece. At once it look real one. I like it very much and very nice decoration piece in book rack.
Posted by: gift | 07/06/2011 at 01:21 AM