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A review by noellefraser
Adventures of a Young Naturalist: The Zoo Quest Expeditions by David Attenborough
4.0
"It's easy," I said to Daan that evening. "We fly to Macassar, connect with a plane to Maumere, discover our Chinese friend's brother-in-law, hire a lorry, drive two hundred miles to the other end of Flores, find a canoe or something, cross the five-mile strait to Komodo and then all we have to do is to catch our dragon."
I started reading this book around a month ago, knowing that I would not have a lot of time for reading in the foreseeable future. Now, nearly a month later, I have finally finished this book and can say that I could not have made a better choice. Talk about reading the perfect book at the perfect time...
While it is true that this book is a bit on the heavier and denser side, somehow it worked really well for me in this situation. I ended up reading around one or two chapters a day, in the evening before going to bed. This equaled to around 20 to 25 pages a day, which I personally feel like was a good pace to keep so that the amount of information isn't too overwhelming. Towards the end, I sped up a little bit as I had more time to read, but it still didn't feel too dense for me, simply because by this point I was so used to this writing style and the type of stories that were being told. It's almost weird now, to think that I am finished with the book and won't be reading more chapters every night.
The stories itself were amazing, it was a lot of fun to follow Attenborough's adventures around the world and hear about all the kinds of animals he came across. In the later chapters, his well-known humour started to come through as well, so it was incredibly entertaining.
If I'm being honest, I probably wouldn't recommend this book to people who struggle with longer books and/or dense writing styles. It is a little bit on the heavier side and it does take some time to get used to it. However, I myself don't really tend to go for the long books, rather preferring shorter and eventful stories, and I still really, really enjoyed this book. I think, in the end, if you are curious about nature, travel, and especially animals, and you are willing to invest a little patience in discovering far off lands and different cultures, then you will love this book.
Also, I would probably expect that if you are interested in this book, you also enjoy nature documentaries and I think that comes with a certain amount of patience for quiet moments in story telling, so you'll probably be fine.
Actual rating: 4.2 stars
I started reading this book around a month ago, knowing that I would not have a lot of time for reading in the foreseeable future. Now, nearly a month later, I have finally finished this book and can say that I could not have made a better choice. Talk about reading the perfect book at the perfect time...
While it is true that this book is a bit on the heavier and denser side, somehow it worked really well for me in this situation. I ended up reading around one or two chapters a day, in the evening before going to bed. This equaled to around 20 to 25 pages a day, which I personally feel like was a good pace to keep so that the amount of information isn't too overwhelming. Towards the end, I sped up a little bit as I had more time to read, but it still didn't feel too dense for me, simply because by this point I was so used to this writing style and the type of stories that were being told. It's almost weird now, to think that I am finished with the book and won't be reading more chapters every night.
The stories itself were amazing, it was a lot of fun to follow Attenborough's adventures around the world and hear about all the kinds of animals he came across. In the later chapters, his well-known humour started to come through as well, so it was incredibly entertaining.
If I'm being honest, I probably wouldn't recommend this book to people who struggle with longer books and/or dense writing styles. It is a little bit on the heavier side and it does take some time to get used to it. However, I myself don't really tend to go for the long books, rather preferring shorter and eventful stories, and I still really, really enjoyed this book. I think, in the end, if you are curious about nature, travel, and especially animals, and you are willing to invest a little patience in discovering far off lands and different cultures, then you will love this book.
Also, I would probably expect that if you are interested in this book, you also enjoy nature documentaries and I think that comes with a certain amount of patience for quiet moments in story telling, so you'll probably be fine.
Actual rating: 4.2 stars