Book Review – Life in the Undergrowth
As I mentioned before, I have had the chance lately to get a bit of reading done. While wandering through a used bookstore some time ago, I picked up a copy of Life in the Undergrowth. When I finally received some time to get some reading done, I sat down and went through it.
This is a very entertaining book. If you like insects, and you enjoy watching shows typical of Animal Planet and The Discovery Channel, this book is for you.
It is intended to supplement the television show presented by the BBC of the same name. The book reads very much like one of those shows, which IMHO is good in some ways and bad in some ways.
On the good side, the book is very entertaining. The writing style is gripping and keeps you very interested. Typical with these types of shows, the books moves from one type of insect to another – while explaining some of the fascinating aspects of each.
In particular, I enjoyed reading the history of many different types of invertebrates – when they first appeared and why. This is a great book for appreciating the intricacies of nature and I think it’s almost impossible to read any book about insects and not learn something due to the huge amount there is to learn.
On the negative side, I often found myself asking more questions that the book did not cover. I prefer books that cover a subject in depth and this one did not. It is meant to entertain and give a good overview to the insect world. It does not give a wide amount of information for any one species.
The audience for this book is clearly individuals who are not very familiar with the insect world and just want to be entertained. For entomologist or those who have read a good number of books about insects already (such as myself) it is a bit less interesting.
Therefore, if you don’t know much about the insect world around you, I highly recommend this book. It does not contain technical details, is very entertaining, and will give you a good appreciation of the insect world. If you are not new to insects, I recommend instead that you just watch the television series – though the book is worth a read if you find it in your local library.
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Tags: book, entomology, insect, invertebrate, life in the undergrowth, review