I read this at it was chosen as the first book for the Farnam Street Blog Virtual Reading Group. It’s unlikely to be something I would have naturally read otherwise, but it turned out to be fascinating read.
The book is essentially a tour through the birth of the theory of evolution, through to island biogeography and conservation biology. You get to meet the scientists at the heart of these developments from Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin, to E.O. Wilson, Jared Diamond and many others. You also get to tour the world from Indonesia to the Galapagos to Madagascar to Tasmania and many other places. You also get to meet many different species of animal, some of which are now extinct and many of which may be on their way. It’s a long book, but never boring.
The book is replete with interesting stories. Although almost everyone has heard of the Dodo, another animal mentioned in the book is the Passenger Pigeon. Now extinct, there were 3-5 billion of them in North America in the 18th and 19th centuries, but they became extinct by 1900.
Having only ever studied a minimal amount of biology at school, I really only had a shallow understanding of evolution and how new species are created. My understanding is much improved after reading this book, though it has now opened a whole new set of questions for me.
One other benefit in reading this book is that you’ll pick up a plethora of new and interesting words for your vocabulary. This is where the Kindle really comes in handy, as you can just highlight a word to bring up the dictionary entry for it. Unfortunately, I didn’t make note of those interesting words as I was reading and can no longer remember any of them - a lesson for the future. Going forwards I will be adding all the interesting words to my notes for the book on the kindle.