Book Review: E-book, The Beauty of Birds

Princeton University Press offers Shorts, ebooks which are excerpts from larger, more extensive works. In this particular case, The Beauty of Birds, by Jeremy Mynott, is drawn from his longer work, Birdscapes: Birds in Our Imagination and Experience.

In The Beauty of Birds, Jeremy Mynott explores what it is about birds we find beautiful. What attracts us and how?

I really enjoyed this little book. An interesting portion discusses the changes in how birds are depicted in illustrations over time, with samples from a variety of famous illustrators: Audubon, Peterson, and others.

Americans tend to be very straightforward in their prose, with short, concise sentences. One of the joys of reading books by British authors is the more descriptive, colorful prose. The book is peppered with illustrations, photos, songs, poetry and other interesting tidbits, written in a way that is enjoyable from the beauty of the prose alone. If you enjoy reading about birds over and above than the descriptive prose of a field guide, you need to pick up this little gem.

The Beauty of Birds is available from Princeton University Press for $2.99. If like me, you were intrigued and want to read the entire Birdscapes book, then you can purchase it also for $19.95.

Good birding!