The Extreme Life of the Sea

I love natural history books. But this one is an oddity, being written by a marine scientist and his son (who is a writer, not a scientist). As such, it contains a combination of very interesting scientific facts that I haven't seen written about elsewhere, scientific facts that most people already know, and pop culture references that will quickly become outdated and that make it seem as if the authors were trying to hard to be cute. The book's entries on the various "life" covered are also very, very short; at most a page or so. So, 5 stars for the interesting facts minus 2 stars for overly-short entries and writing that is trying to hard to be edgy.

Eventually, I will give this a second try. I found it difficult. I actually loved the pop culture examples that another Good Reader found distracting. For me, this was so far afield of what I know about and the sea life is so contextually unfamiliar that the pop culture gave me analogies that I spoke my language. But, about 60% of the way through, it became a chore. to continue. That's probably unfair as it was well-written, so at some point hence it'll be worth a reboot in the reading rotation.

Eventually, I will give this a second try. I found it difficult. I actually loved the pop culture examples that another Good Reader found distracting. For me, this was so far afield of what I know about and the sea life is so contextually unfamiliar that the pop culture gave me analogies that I spoke my language. But, about 60% of the way through, it became a chore. to continue. That's probably unfair as it was well-written, so at some point hence it'll be worth a reboot in the reading rotation.

A fascinating book about some of most interesting sea life known to man. A very fun read.