Reviews with content warning for Animal death - An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us

Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong

16 reviews

betag1013's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful informative mysterious reflective slow-paced

4.5

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riverofhorton's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny informative inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

4.0

This book was an incredibly interesting read, and even though I already knew some of the basic facts of animal sense, this book allowed a much richer kind of understanding that I wouldn't have otherwise. I largely decided to read this as research for a novel idea I have, but I will be recommending it to anyone that is even remotely curious about animals and how much of the world we miss due to it being outside our own perception. The main take away from this book seems to be one of conservation. When species go extinct, so does their way of perceiving the world since each animal has its own unique way of doing so. Thus, the message seems to be to act now to save all the endangered species while we still can. A message that I can wholeheartedly get behind. I particularly enjoyed the sections about the echolocation of bats, and the movement sensors in spiders' legs. Other section brought up some ethical questions that I wouldn't have even considered prior to reading this book.

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laurareads87's review against another edition

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informative medium-paced

5.0

I could not more enthusiastically give a book five stars. Ed Yong's An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us is meticulously well researched, well written, thoughtful, utterly fascinating, and includes both moments of humour - being punched by a mantis shrimp! - and, of course, tragedy. It is a text that is world-opening: while we cannot truly know what it is like to be any other species, Yong's exploration of how my other-than-human neighbours navigate, communicate, and express their curiosity has deepened and enriched my own experience of my surroundings. Even better? After concluding reading, I've begun thinking about how I can be a better neighbour by mitigating the light pollution emitted by my home. I am immensely grateful for this book and anticipate gifting it to others.

Content warnings: animal cruelty (including animal experimentation), animal death

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kappafrog's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious slow-paced

4.75

What a fantastic science book! A true triumph. This book has forever changed how I see the world. I had my mind blown in every chapter. Yong has a real gift for making biology accessible. He did a great job conveying concepts that are difficult for us to conceptualize. I have been recommending this book to everyone since I started it a few months ago. Read this book and discover the world as it has always existed around you but been hidden to your senses.

The only reason it's not a full 5/5 is because there were some parts that were pretty slow. Still, I think that's because some animals' stories will grab people more than others and Yong was trying to offer up a wide array of examples.

This is one of my favourite science books now, right up there with Braiding Sweetgrass. Like that book, An Immense World has opened my eyes - and all of my senses - to new ways of experiencing the world. And as a fun bonus, I'm going to incorporate things I learned from it into sci-fi and fantasy world building because WOW, there is so much untapped potential here! There is so much info in this book that it will definitely bear re-reading in the future.

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