Swimming with Piranhas at Feeding Time by Richard Conniff
June 9th, 2009Title: Swimming with Piranhas at Feeding Time
Author: Richard Conniff
Publisher: W.W. Norton (2009)
I am an explorer. There is nothing I like better than to find some place I have never seen and just go exploring. Though I guess now would be a good time to mention I don’t like to actually leave my house. I prefer to do my exploring through DiscoveryHD or NatGeo (in HD of course!). But this time I got to do my exploring through a book. A fun book at that!
Swimming with Piranhas at Feeding Time: My Life Doing Dumb Stuff with Animals by Richard Conniff is a great travelogue, moving all over the world observing animals in their natural habitats. Conniff is a fantastic descriptive writer…he really expresses what is happening. Which is nice because there is about a 0% chance that I will ever hang out with a group of jellyfish…or swim with piranhas…or search for wild dogs in Africa.
In between the various essays recording his trips are little informational tidbits that couldn’t make up an entire chapter, but still interesting enough for inclusion in the book. It is a pretty fast read as you don’t really have to think very hard to follow what is happening. As usual, I would have preferred to see some pictures of the It animals or whatever, I think that would have added a nice touch.
Overall – I enjoyed this book. If you like learning about wild animals or watching NatGeo, you will probably like this too. If you hate animals, and especially essays about animals…well this book is obviously not for you. Also, you are likely a jerk.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
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