LoveReading Says
Just a little bit mind-blowing, this immensely fascinating and satisfying book kicks known thoughts out into free-fall. Award-winning science writer Ed Yong's first book I Contain Multitudes was shortlisted for The Wellcome Book Prize and Royal Society Science Book Prize. In An Immense World his writing connected me to the unknown. While I love nature and often seek it out, I’ve never really thought beyond my own senses and viewpoint. Here he takes you into the senses of other animals and lets you use them. It’s completely wonderful, and eye-opening (you will also note how often we use words connected to our main senses). He encourages you to think beyond now, to what the future could be. We have to look beyond ourselves to appreciate the damage we are sometimes unwittingly causing to ecosystems. Conservationists are able to make huge changes by seeing the world as though they are the animal rather than from a human viewpoint. As Ed Yong states, how do we solve a problem that we don’t realise exists, sensory pollution can be reduced but societal responsibility needs to be motivated enough to make the changes. He shows us that we have the gift to be able to appreciate the differences in animal senses and how it affects everything on our planet. Chosen as a Liz Pick of the Month An Immense World is eloquent, engaging, rewarding, and a hugely important read.
Liz Robinson
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An Immense World Synopsis
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A "thrilling" (The New York Times), "dazzling" (The Wall Street Journal) tour of the radically different ways that animals perceive the world that will fill you with wonder and forever alter your perspective, by Pulitzer Prize-winning science journalist Ed Yong
"One of this year's finest works of narrative nonfiction."-Oprah Daily
ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Time, People, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Slate, Reader's Digest, Chicago Public Library, Outside, Publishers Weekly, BookPage
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Oprah Daily, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Economist, Smithsonian Magazine, Prospect (UK), Globe & Mail, Esquire, Mental Floss, Marginalian, She Reads, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal
The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every kind of animal, including humans, is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of our immense world.
In An Immense World, Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, allowing us to perceive the skeins of scent, waves of electromagnetism, and pulses of pressure that surround us. We encounter beetles that are drawn to fires, turtles that can track the Earth's magnetic fields, fish that fill rivers with electrical messages, and even humans who wield sonar like bats. We discover that a crocodile's scaly face is as sensitive as a lover's fingertips, that the eyes of a giant squid evolved to see sparkling whales, that plants thrum with the inaudible songs of courting bugs, and that even simple scallops have complex vision. We learn what bees see in flowers, what songbirds hear in their tunes, and what dogs smell on the street. We listen to stories of pivotal discoveries in the field, while looking ahead at the many mysteries that remain unsolved.
Funny, rigorous, and suffused with the joy of discovery, An Immense World takes us on what Marcel Proust called "the only true voyage . . . not to visit strange lands, but to possess other eyes."
WINNER OF THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FINALIST FOR THE KIRKUS PRIZE FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/E.O. WILSON AWARD
About This Edition
ISBN: |
9780593133231 |
Publication date: |
21st June 2022 |
Author: |
Ed Yong |
Publisher: |
Random House an imprint of Random House Publishing Group |
Format: |
Hardback |
Pagination: |
449 pages |
Primary Genre |
Nature and the natural world: general interest
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Other Genres: |
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Recommendations: |
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