We’re onto book 3 in my bookish Advent Calendar and today’s book is wildlife and nature writing. The Return of the Osprey by David Gessner is a description of six months in which the author became involved in the lives and nesting habits of the Osprey on the New England coast of North America as the birds increased in number. It’s not a book I have ever heard of and the author is new to me too.
I said yesterday (see here) that I don’t often read about animals. It’s not that I am not interested in them but I am not a regular watcher of documentaries and wildlife programmes on the television where animals are probably best featured (to be fair, I am not a great watcher of television at all). I suspect that this book will not only tell me about the birds but also about the environment and about the writer and the effect that these six months have on him and what he learns from the birds. I think, on the whole, that I like reading about people mostly.
Again, this is not a book that I would normally choose for myself but it is a book that I will read. It’s an American book which means that it’s sized slightly differently from the majority of my books which were originally published in Britain. It’s in good condition and has in its pages a bookmark showing that it might have been sourced from a Yarmouth library in Massachusetts in or around 2007 (although this is not an ex-library copy because it hasn’t any stamps or missing pages). I also note that it has no photos so I am hoping that the descriptions are good enough to make images in my head.
All three of my Advent books to date are not what I would normally buy or read but I am prepared to try them – It’s good to stretch yourself a bit and, after all, I could find a new favourite.
Anne Is Reading 