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A review by ketreads
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert
hopeful
informative
reflective
3.5
I picked this book up many hauls ago but have had my eye constantly drawn to it, yet I never found the right mood to pick it up until now!
I've always had a fascination with the natural world, especially the science that goes into it. This book was a perfect itch for that scratch, though not in the way I wish it was.
From the title, I presumed it would cover the previous extinction events and, in turn, lead us up to the current extinction event and how it came about. Sounds cool, right?
Well, no. Instead, this book is more about the science and history of extinction itself. The history of how we discovered extinction and the animals it affected. How our attitudes towards our natural world and the animals inhabiting it have changed. How the change humanity has made in the face of extinction is underwhelming and doomed.
This wasn't quite what I wanted, but the author still managed to draw me into each case study provided. Some are historical, some being based on personal research. The latter is where the book truly shines. The author has an easy way of describing people she's met and the passion they have for their specialties. Which easily makes us, as readers, both care and relate.
Even if, at the end of the day, this isn't really the book I wanted to read, I still found myself getting a lot out of it and enjoyed the journey nevertheless.
I've always had a fascination with the natural world, especially the science that goes into it. This book was a perfect itch for that scratch, though not in the way I wish it was.
From the title, I presumed it would cover the previous extinction events and, in turn, lead us up to the current extinction event and how it came about. Sounds cool, right?
Well, no. Instead, this book is more about the science and history of extinction itself. The history of how we discovered extinction and the animals it affected. How our attitudes towards our natural world and the animals inhabiting it have changed. How the change humanity has made in the face of extinction is underwhelming and doomed.
This wasn't quite what I wanted, but the author still managed to draw me into each case study provided. Some are historical, some being based on personal research. The latter is where the book truly shines. The author has an easy way of describing people she's met and the passion they have for their specialties. Which easily makes us, as readers, both care and relate.
Even if, at the end of the day, this isn't really the book I wanted to read, I still found myself getting a lot out of it and enjoyed the journey nevertheless.