Reviews

Adventures of a Young Naturalist: The Zoo Quest Expeditions by David Attenborough

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vickysimansjah's review against another edition

3.0

The adventure you always wished for. The book was narrated through the lens of a journal. Very casual, and personal. I am a big fan of adventures, roaming through jungles, tearing through oceans, you name it. All that was encapsulated into this book. Inspiring! Makes me want to travel far out to the deep deep forests and connect with locals around the area. I definitely get the struggles and frustrations Sir Attenborough had to go through. But in a way, it felt super exciting and I'm curious to know what will be his next expeditions. Definitely a fun read.

sapphicreads64's review against another edition

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adventurous funny medium-paced

4.0

bex1408's review against another edition

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4.0

I really enjoyed this book (not keen on the whole taking animals from their natural habitat back to a zoo) but if I ignore that it was really cool!

elenap's review against another edition

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4.0

What a ride! I was given the opportunity to travel to Guyana, Indonesia, and Paraguay with Sir David Attenborough, or to be more exact, with David. Because in this book you see his adventures in wilderness and less known territories as a 20-something-year-old. It's a window into a world that has changed so much through a lens that doesn't bring any moral colonial superiority.

The book was lovely, but Attenborough is a fantastic storyteller and way more charismatic on screen, and for that we will forever be grateful.

What impressed me was his resourcefulness, tenacity, utter fearlessness, and curiosity about the world and nature (like we didn't know that already). Back in the 50s, the infrastructure, transportation, and communication systems were infinitely less established than they are now, and still, together with colleagues and friends picked up along the way, he managed to travel to wild corners of the world filming for BBC and bringing back animals considered to be mythical for the London Zoo. It's honestly more of an inspirational book if nothing else. If he could do this back then in those rough conditions, you can do way more now. Well, probably not in the literal sense if you're a woman, but I'm not going to go that route.

I can't give this book a hard 5, but it is definitely a 4+ star one. Highly recommend it to animal, adventure, and nature lovers. I might listen to it as an audiobook as well in the future, seems such a shame to miss out of that legendary voice.