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A review by madireadssometimes
The Book of Eels: Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World by Patrik Svensson
4.0
I did enjoy this book for the scientific facts, studies and expeditions it names in it. I knew nothing about the eel and this book taught me a lot- about the European eel. It really focuses on the one species with mention of the American eel and the Japanese eel.
More than half of this book is memoir based. You could tell this was healing for the author, but it was slightly boring for the reader. In the memoir portions the author describes fishing for eels with his dad. He talks about how they would eat them and how they would trap them. Then in the factual portion he talks about how they are going extinct. It was a little too ironic for me.
I wish the author could have touched on the Loch Ness monster. A study has been done on DNA samples in Loch Ness and a insanely high percentage of that DNA has turned out to be from eels.
This was incredibly enlightening on what we do know of the eel, how we know it, what we don't know, and how we honestly may never know before they go extinct.
More than half of this book is memoir based. You could tell this was healing for the author, but it was slightly boring for the reader. In the memoir portions the author describes fishing for eels with his dad. He talks about how they would eat them and how they would trap them. Then in the factual portion he talks about how they are going extinct. It was a little too ironic for me.
I wish the author could have touched on the Loch Ness monster. A study has been done on DNA samples in Loch Ness and a insanely high percentage of that DNA has turned out to be from eels.
This was incredibly enlightening on what we do know of the eel, how we know it, what we don't know, and how we honestly may never know before they go extinct.