Acquired via BookCrossing 03 July 2009 - in my NSS parcel at the Unconvention

Not one of Sacks' neuropsychiatry works but a more personal work - a diary of a week-long trip to Mexico to study ferns. A beautiful book in which he both celebrates the ferns themselves and the people - mostly amateurs - who study and know so much about them. Eccentrics abound in both populations, but Sacks feels included in this quite different world, which he stumbled upon a few years ago, and obviously has a wonderful time. A lovely book which, although registered, I'm going to keep, making it available to loan only to people fairly close to me! ( )

Wouldja look at these FERNS!

(MST3K references aside, I love Sacks, but don't read this unless you are really, really into ferns. Really.)

An unedited journal, straight from the heart: After finishing this book, I am convinced that people who develop a passion for something, be it for career, avocation, or hobby, tend to live longer and are more frequently happy, and when they die, they die happy. I bet Oliver Sacks is one of these lucky people! Never cease to be fascinated--that is one key to happiness, and Sacks proves to us just that. Without question he is a Renaissance man, keen to share with us his enthusiasm for his profession (evident from his excellent prose in "The man who mistook..." and his other books) but stays open to ideas and activities that pique his interest, one of which is attending and participating in the New York Botanical Garden's Fern Society and embarking on a weeklong trip to Oaxaca, Mexico with a quirky cast of people whose common interest in ferns and other plants, and birds, transcend professions, economic status, nationality, and personal histories. The fact that the book was based on his travel journals that were written at the time of his trip and were left unedited made the reading experience more poignant and powerful. At the end you feel grateful for people who look "beyond the scenery", who take the time "to stop and smell the flowers", and who see the world almost with the same innocence as children, for they are the ones that make life richer, and perhaps even make the world a better place for the rest of us--and for future generations.