Tag Archives: Nature

Into Thin Air

Posted on November 14, 2013 by smellincoffee

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster291 pages© 1997 Jon Krakauer When Outside magazine dispatched Jon Krakauer to join an expedition to climb Mount Everest in 1996 to investigate its commercialization, the opportunity allowed him to … Continue reading →

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What Are People For? (Comments & Selections)

Posted on August 19, 2013 by smellincoffee

What Are People For?© 1990, 2010 (2nd Edition) Wendell Berry210 pages Did the Lord say that machines oughta take the place of livin’? (“John Henry“, Johnny Cash) Wendell Berry is a softly outspoken critic of the triumph of inhumanity. What … Continue reading →

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Chimpanzee Politics

Posted on May 2, 2013 by smellincoffee

Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex Among Apes©  1983 Frans de Waal256 pages Back in the 1970s, primatologist Frans de Waal conducted one of the first extensive studies into the social structures of chimpanzees.  Chimpanzee Politics is the result,  establishing facts … Continue reading →

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Desert Solitaire

Posted on February 10, 2012 by smellincoffee

Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness© 1968 Edward Abbey269 pages Journey to the expansive southwestern American desert and take it in — the vast stretches of open ground, bounded by mountains and broken by marvelously intriguing rock formations that … Continue reading →

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The Oceans

Posted on January 21, 2012 by smellincoffee

The Oceans© 2000 Ellen J. Prager with Sylvia A. Earle314 pages Seventy percent of the Earth’s surface is covered in water, constituting a vast and largely unknown world of its own — vitally important to ours, but scarcely explored and … Continue reading →

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Walking with Dinosaurs

Posted on September 28, 2011 by smellincoffee

Walking with Dinosaurs: A Natural History© 1999 Tim Haines288 pages A dull pre-dawn light spreads across the horizon, illuminating a landscape covered in forest. Rivers trace silvery lines through the dense vegetation, and along their banks icy puddles are melting. … Continue reading →

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This Week at the Library (29 December)

Posted on December 29, 2010 by smellincoffee

Aside from the books I’ve already done full comments on, I also finished The Great American Wolf and The Golden Door.  My observations about them were shortish, so I decided to include them here instead of making seperate, strangely short … Continue reading →

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The Life of Birds

Posted on May 23, 2010 by smellincoffee

The Life of Birds © 1998 Sir David Attenborough 320 pages As I drove home from the library last week, I watched a beautiful white bird soar above the highway for several minutes. As it passed close by overhead, I … Continue reading →

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The Trials of Life

Posted on May 5, 2010 by smellincoffee

The Trials of Life: a Natural History of Animal Behavior© 1990 Sir David Attenborough320 pages Following up on last week’s The Private Life of Plants, I enjoyed another of Attenborough’s books documenting the extraordinary natural world: this with a focus … Continue reading →

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The Private Life of Plants

Posted on April 28, 2010 by smellincoffee

The Private Life of Plants © 1995 David Attenborough 320 pages I spend a little time every week contemplating my home library’s eviscerated science section, hoping against hope to find some interesting volume amid the remains. Last week, picking through … Continue reading →

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