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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
slow-paced
This is essentially a tale of two books, one about eels—their lifestyles, biology, history, etc.—and the other about the author’s relationship to them. I like both books; quite a bit, even. The science side is very accessible, perhaps overly so, and succeeds in providing a tourist’s summary of these strange creatures, which is exactly what I wanted when I picked the book up. The memoir side is just as well-written, and features more nostalgic sincerity and ruminations than I expected. My hang-up is the spotty connective tissue Svensson uses to bridge the gap between those two books. His attempts at tying a familial memory to a scientific factoid can be flimsy, especially in the latter half where he seems to exhaust the conversation on eels. I began feeling impatient when Svensson started looping in stories of other creatures to further a point I felt he had already made pretty clearly.
It might read like a paper that was stretched into a book, but it’s still a solid read, with interesting takeaways about eels themselves and how our lives and hearts intermingle with the natural world. I’m glad I read it.
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
One of the most beautiful books I've ever read
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
I hadn't previously been interested in eels, but a colleague of mine had shared an interesting article about them, so I had a google to find a book. I like memoirs, so I landed on this one and it pleasantly surprised me, covering a lot more than I had expected. I love the blend of memoir (mostly centred around eel fishing with his father), natural history (centred around studies of the eel of course, the most interesting to me being Rachel Carson who I hadn't heard of before and now want to look up), cultural stuff about the fishing and cooking of eels, and even some philosophical discussions about what it means to be human, the nature of belief, and life and death. I like the grounded tone, there's no saccharine sentimentality here, but curiosity and a feeling of wonder permeates it and kept me interested. It's a gem of a book.
emotional
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Death of parent
hopeful
informative
fast-paced
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
There are a lot of interesting facts, as much as we have facts, about eels, and the methods that were taken to know what we know. There was also a lot of personal anecdotes about the author eel fishing with his father. I think, about half way through, this book kind of went off the rails of teaching the history of eels and sharing the history of people who have studied eels, which was fine, just not as interesting as the first half.