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rfelt's review against another edition
4.0
Really interesting read, particularly at this time. Each essay progressively became better, and I still really enjoyed the first one. A lot to discuss, excited for family book club
cblanc3666's review against another edition
4.0
What a fun and entertaining book! The writing style is oddly disjointed and given to digression, but it makes for an enjoyable read. The writing style felt really familiar and it turns out I’d already read the essay about the San Gabriel Mountains, so it was really fun to find more work by the same author.
caedocyon's review against another edition
5.0
This book is AMAZING so far and I am about on page 50. I am so glad he has written another several feet of books that I can start next....
iancolby's review against another edition
3.0
I liked the exploration of the theme in general, but any hope of rhythm or narrative was thrown off within the first few pages. It's better described as a scattershot of anecdotes, None of which end up making any final point.
drew1013's review against another edition
1.0
DNF: boring. I might have read 1/3 of it, then started skipping ahead in hopes that one of the other sections of the book would grab me.
This read like an extremely long National Geographic article. I have nothing against NatGeo, and in fact, that’s probably not a good comparison. NatGeo articles are generally pretty engaging.
I think the larger idea of man-against-nature is compelling, but the book likes to wade into the minutiae and just kind of be there for pages upon pages. Nothing much happens. Progress in the narrative is slow. Ffs, one of the chapters is about changing the flow of a river. I don’t think anyone could make that interesting in writing. Certainly not when the subject of the writing is the actual changing of the river, and not a fully fleshed-out person we can relate to.
Poorly executed, sad to say.
This read like an extremely long National Geographic article. I have nothing against NatGeo, and in fact, that’s probably not a good comparison. NatGeo articles are generally pretty engaging.
I think the larger idea of man-against-nature is compelling, but the book likes to wade into the minutiae and just kind of be there for pages upon pages. Nothing much happens. Progress in the narrative is slow. Ffs, one of the chapters is about changing the flow of a river. I don’t think anyone could make that interesting in writing. Certainly not when the subject of the writing is the actual changing of the river, and not a fully fleshed-out person we can relate to.
Poorly executed, sad to say.
jpog_blue's review against another edition
4.0
all three stories are good but the first one about the atchafalaya is so interesting i had a dream about it the night after i read it