|
Loading... The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsessionby Mark Obmascik
LibraryThing recommendationsMember recommendationsLoading...
won't like
will probably not like
will probably like
will like
will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.  woodsathome | Sep 2, 2009 |  Are birders unusual people? This book takes you squarely to the three top birders of 1998 to answer that question. During that year, Sandy Komito, Al Levantin, and Greg Miller all compete to determine who can see the most different species of birds in North America. Their adventures are not only costly, but exceedingly grueling. At first, the three birders start their individual quests not knowing that others are doing the same. Imagine their surprise when, well into their pursuit of a number to top the previous record, they find out that each is not alone! Mark Obmascik brings this adventure alive by following the entire birding year of these three competitors. It is amazing to think that anyone has the fortitude to do this kind of birding. Although some may perceive part of the book as humorous, I had been too taken aback by the difficult situations in which the birders found themselves to do much laughing while reading this story. It may be an obsessive hobby, but as a faux-birder myself, I can see the lure and fun of doing this…albeit on a much smaller scale. (  ) SqueakyChu | Apr 17, 2009 | A glimpse into the lives of the big listers... people who - even though I am an avid birder - I can't fully understand. This book got me closer, but there is still some kind of disconnect for me. I love to WATCH birds and learn about them, their habits, habitat, food, etc. The people in this book merely want to count them. For me, the magic of watching the graceful dance of an Arctic Tern as they dance in and out of the fog on a rocky beach is pure heaven... and in these kind of situations, big listers spot, confirm and move on! sigh... alas, the world can't be just like me. :-) I did enjoy the book though - so if you like birding (watching or counting) you should enjoy this book. ( ) Cygnus555 | Mar 25, 2008 | Capturing the insanity that is waking up one day and deciding that you will travel the continent in an attempt to see over 700 bird species in one calendar year.Three crazies make the attempt of this monumental feat. Make no mistake - it's a massive undertaking - you're talking coordinating travel with bird migrations & and still have the ability to uproot and go on a whim when a rare bird pops up. One of the three certainly has little redeeming qualities and wrote a book himself on his version of the adventure. Big Year has plenty of funny moments, quite a few ironic moments and in all, is a good light hearted read with gobs of excellent insider stories on birding, bird life and ornithology for anyone interested in such things. (  ) jmcclain19 | Aug 9, 2007 | This book is not overtly funny but it is about funny people, bird nerds. Three guys, unbeknownst to each other, each set out in 1998 to set a record of the number of individual bird species seen in the continental U.S. in a calendar year. One guy is just an SOB, he pays $15 a call to find our where the rare birds are, runs up to folk lined up at scopes to look the birds they found first, grabs a peek and races off to his private helicopter to bag his next sighting. The second guy is only able to bird three days a week. The other four he spends writing code to prevent nuclear power plant meltdowns. The third guy is a charming and talented CEO but deeply subject to nausea at sea, a problem when you are off the continental shelf looking for pelagic birds, the ones who never come ashore. He throws up in the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Gulf of Mexico. By year’s end a record is set – 745 birds, a rate of more than two new birds each day and the winner spends over $100,000. You will have to read it to see who wins and how. 1  RAPS | May 7, 2007 |  no reviews | add a review
References to this work on external resources.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Book description |
|
Every year on January 1, a quirky crowd of adventurers storms out across North America for a spectacularly competitive event called a Big Year -- a grand, grueling, expensive, and occasionally vicious, "extreme" 365-day marathon of birdwatching.
For three men in particular, 1998 would be a whirlwind, a winner-takes-nothing battle for a new North American birding record. In frenetic pilgrimages for once-in-a-lifetime rarities that can make or break their lead, the birders race each other from Del Rio, Texas, in search of the rufous-capped warbler, to Gibsons, British Columbia, on a quest for Xantus's hummingbird, to Cape May, New Jersey, seeking the offshore great skua. Bouncing from coast to coast on their potholed road to glory, they brave broiling deserts, roiling oceans, bug-infested swamps, a charge by a disgruntled mountain lion, and some of the lumpiest motel mattresses known to man.
The unprecedented year of beat-the-clock adventures ultimately leads one man to a new record -- one so gigantic that it is unlikely ever to be bested...finding and identifying an extraordinary 745 different species by official year-end count.
Prize-winning journalist Mark Obmascik creates a rollicking, dazzling narrative of the 275,000-mile odyssey of these three obsessives as they fight to the finish to claim the title in the greatest -- or maybe the worst -- birding contest of all time. With an engaging, unflappably wry humor, Obmascik memorializes their wild and crazy exploits and, along the way, interweaves an entertaining smattering of science about birds and their own strange behavior with a brief history of other bird-men and -women; turns out even Audubon pushed himself beyond the brink when he was chasing and painting the birds of America.
A captivating tour of human and avian nature, passion and paranoia, honor and deceit, fear and loathing, The Big Year shows the lengths to which people will go to pursue their dreams, to conquer and categorize -- no matter how low the stakes. This is a lark of a read for anyone with birds on the brain -- or not.
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:12 -0400)
The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details.
Quick Links |
Wikipedia in English
This book is ultimately about a quest. Like Know-it-all and Julie and Julia, it's a highly enjoyable look into the hearts and minds of people who set a near impossible, impractical, and sometimes down-right silly goal and stick to it. (