The Running Sky: A Bird-Watching Life
by Tim Dee
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Description
This title records a lifetime of looking at birds. It follows the birds' year from one summer to the next. Dee maps his own observations and encounters over four decades, tracking birds well-known and bizarre, flying free, in the nest, in his hand as he rings them, or dead and stuffed on his mantelpiece.Tags
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Member Reviews
This was a present that I feel hopelessly unqualified to review.
Dee has spent half a century watching and listening to birds in Britain and around the world. He clearly has a wealth of experience and enthusiasm to share, but my experience of the subject is so limited that much of it went over my head (almost literally), and I was left sympathising with his son's "comically wilful ornithological ignorance".
I was able to appreciate the quality of the writing, the range and arrangement of the subject matter and the many poets quoted, but I must admit that for me it was a bit of a struggle to read.
No criticism of the book, the writer or the subject intended!
Dee has spent half a century watching and listening to birds in Britain and around the world. He clearly has a wealth of experience and enthusiasm to share, but my experience of the subject is so limited that much of it went over my head (almost literally), and I was left sympathising with his son's "comically wilful ornithological ignorance".
I was able to appreciate the quality of the writing, the range and arrangement of the subject matter and the many poets quoted, but I must admit that for me it was a bit of a struggle to read.
No criticism of the book, the writer or the subject intended!
I'm not quite sure what to make of this book and suspect it requires a second read and further digestion.
The opening chapters were great - really drew me into Tim Dee's story, but after that it got a little woolly and less interesting.
The opening chapters were great - really drew me into Tim Dee's story, but after that it got a little woolly and less interesting.
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Tim Dee's 'The Running Sky' in Birds, Birding & Books (December 2013)
Author Information
8+ Works 331 Members
Tim Dee was born in Liverpool in 1961. He has worked as a BBC radio producer for more than twenty years and divides his life between Bristol and Cambridge. His first book. The Running Sky: A Birdwatching Life, was published in 2009.
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Running Sky: A Bird-Watching Life
- Original title
- The Running Sky: A Bird-Watching Life
- Alternate titles
- A Year on the Wing: Four Seasons in a Life with Birds
- Disambiguation notice
- Published in the US as: A Year on the Wing: Four Seasons in a Life with Birds.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 119
- Popularity
- 272,557
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.38)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 8
- ASINs
- 2
