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The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery
dionisea's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
3.75
daumari's review against another edition
2.0
Ehh. I was neither surprised nor astounded by Sy Montgomery's relationships with octopuses at the New England Aquarium, so the title feels misleading. It was a pretty decent memoir of her experiences and relationships with the octopuses, their caretakers, and volunteers at NEAq. Perhaps instead of "An Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness", an exploration of friends we made along the way?
This is the emotional opposite of [book:Octopus: The Ocean's Intelligent Invertebrate|7367893]- while Mather, Anderson, & Wood's book was chock-ful of information and scientific literature references, Soul sprinkles facts in between the emotional connections and resonances she gets communing with Kali, Octavia, and Karma (Jennifer Mather and Roland Anderson actually do make appearances as Montgomery travels twice to the Seattle Aquarium, once for a conference and once for the Octopus Blind Date). While I commend her empathy for non-humans, I do have to raise my eyebrow a couple times when she cites websites on love being transcendental vibrations or whatever... c'mon, Sy, while I get emotion is your schtick, pick something a little more grounded?
Anyway. Readable, but more as a memoir than any hard hitting science. Still haven't found the perfect cephalopod book, alas.
This is the emotional opposite of [book:Octopus: The Ocean's Intelligent Invertebrate|7367893]- while Mather, Anderson, & Wood's book was chock-ful of information and scientific literature references, Soul sprinkles facts in between the emotional connections and resonances she gets communing with Kali, Octavia, and Karma (Jennifer Mather and Roland Anderson actually do make appearances as Montgomery travels twice to the Seattle Aquarium, once for a conference and once for the Octopus Blind Date). While I commend her empathy for non-humans, I do have to raise my eyebrow a couple times when she cites websites on love being transcendental vibrations or whatever... c'mon, Sy, while I get emotion is your schtick, pick something a little more grounded?
Anyway. Readable, but more as a memoir than any hard hitting science. Still haven't found the perfect cephalopod book, alas.
bhnmt61's review against another edition
3.0
Fascinating exploration of octopuses and the relationships they build with their human caregivers. Truly a subject I knew nothing about. It got a little long for me— a long form magazine article on this subject would have been plenty for me— but I frequently have that reaction to single-subject non-fiction books so that probably doesn’t mean much. Worth reading.
outcolder's review against another edition
4.0
A student in the library where I work a few years ago wanted some help finding articles about 'animal intelligence' and I had been expecting a lot of stuff about primates, dolphins and whales, maybe the odd parrot, and I was surprised to see lots and lots of scientific articles about cephalopods. I thought this book would be an understandable pop-science summary of that research but it's something else entirely. This is a memoir of Sy Montgomery's friendships with some fascinating octopuses and some delightful human beings, mainly at the New England Aquarium. The action centers around the GOT which does not stand for some big budget TV series but rather for the Great Ocean Tank. Montgomery is great at describing the sense of wonder and amazement she experiences around all these strange sea creatures, and her love for animals, life and living in general is infectious. I found myself turning to this book more often than others in my currently-reading pile because it makes you feel good, even when octopuses are dying or humans are facing difficult situations. I am annoyed, though, that she doesn't provide proper notes or citations. There are a lot of anecdotes about specific octopuses and references to scientific studies, philosophers and religious texts that I would like to explore further but I don't know where she got them from. Also, it's just disrespectful to have a best selling book with so much content taken from others without giving them proper credit. Even her friend, the author [a:Elizabeth Marshall Thomas|36571|Elizabeth Marshall Thomas|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1406373034p2/36571.jpg], gets mentioned several times but not in the selected bibliography. However, this small complaint is balanced out by the fact that the small pictures of an octopus on the corner of every page become a flip-book animation.
thechanelmuse's review against another edition
2.0
“More than half a billion years ago, the lineage that would lead to octopuses and the one leading to humans separated. Was it possible, I wondered, to reach another mind on the other side of that divide? Octopuses represent the great mystery of the Other..”
The Soul of an Octopus is full of intriguing facts about the creature the title suggests, as well as other animals, at times, to offer a full perspective of just how unique and magical octopuses are. The first two chapters had me hooked then loosened its grip and dragged along when the succeeding chapters started to feel like self-serving diary entries focused on the author, her scuba diving certification, and the crew. I came here for octopuses only.
Another thing that makes this book sadly fall short is that it doesn’t explore the “wonder of consciousness” aspect, which I was really looking forward to.
2.5 rating
The Soul of an Octopus is full of intriguing facts about the creature the title suggests, as well as other animals, at times, to offer a full perspective of just how unique and magical octopuses are. The first two chapters had me hooked then loosened its grip and dragged along when the succeeding chapters started to feel like self-serving diary entries focused on the author, her scuba diving certification, and the crew. I came here for octopuses only.
Another thing that makes this book sadly fall short is that it doesn’t explore the “wonder of consciousness” aspect, which I was really looking forward to.
2.5 rating
kro_0's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
4.25