Washed Up: The Curious Journeys of Flotsam and Jetsam

If you've never read a book about garbage, this would be as good a place as any to start. The author traces the trash on our beaches - the flotsam and jetsam that wash up - and does it in with a lively style and a good sense of humor.

A little disappointing. I buy a lot of books sight unseen, based on online descriptions; sometimes I get what I was expecting, sometimes I get something else which may still be interesting. Or not. In this case I was expecting something fairly technical – a discussion of ocean currents and beach dynamics. Instead, I got a book of anecdotes from a compulsive beachcomber. To boot, many of the anecdotes are personal – author Skye Moody picks up a random pretty rock at the beach, turns it over, and finds a human face drawn on the other side. Far out, cool and groovy.

A few are fairly interesting – for example, slabs of beeswax have been washing up along the Oregon coast since the 1890s. From where? The suggestion is a long-lost show more Spanish galleon carrying beeswax from the Far East, and Moody provides a list of missing galleons. Unfortunately, Moody takes fellow beachcombers claims at face value – supposedly one had a beeswax slab carbon dated to 1691. Anyone familiar with carbon dating should have been able to clue her in on the various ways that could be wrong. Of course there’s the obligatory mention of the exploding whale, the prefabricated house picked up by a lucky Alaskan, the Nike shoes – all left feet, etc. (I’ve seen something similar from the Ordovician – a slab of rock covered with bivalve fossils – but only the left valves. Or maybe it was only the right valves; don’t remember).

Not worth buying unless it’s in the $1 remainder bin, but might make an amusing couple of hours reading if picked up at the library. show less

This is a very informative, enjoyable book. This short volume covers the full range of things that the sea gives up to the land. Exploring everything from seaweed to missives in bottles this is a wonderful book on a little known subject, little known to most of us landlubbers at least. Ms. Moody is a long time lover of the sea and the descendent of seafarers who writes with an easy chatty style.

The volume is very loosely tied together by her search for the identity of a mysterious item that she failed to pick up on a beachcombing expedition. This recurring theme proves to be, in my eyes at least, to give the only weakness in the book. There is a recurring dialog with a psychiatrist throughout the book that I found confusing. I was show more unable to decide if this was an actual problem the author had or a reflection on society’s viewpoint toward people with non mainstream hobbies.

However, this was a very enjoyable book that I would recommend to anyone. My one tiny quibble may well reflect my weakness as a reader as opposed to any fault Ms Moody has as an author. show less