Marcia C. reviewed The Lost Art of Reading Nature's Signs: Use Outdoor Clues to Find Your Way, Predict the Weather, Locate Water, Track Animals - and Other Forgotten Skills on + 670 more book reviews
I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it contains much hardwon wisdom and tips about reading nature. And on the other hand, it was clear to me while reading that I couldn't really learn such stuff from reading.
First, much of the contents didn't pertain to the environment where I very much prefer not to get lost in the woods when I explore them, and secondly much of the nature terminology - especially kinds of flowers - was completely unfamiliar to me and not meaningfully explained.
The British author obviously tried hard to make the book relevant to American readers, but for me, too much of the language and natural phenomena were specific to Great Britain and might as well have been about Antarctica.
In addition, he explained some natural phenomena quite clearly but in many cases he overestimated the background knowledge that readers would have. For example, he talked about "crepuscular rays" and "sunbeams" but how they were different and specifically what the former were made no sense to me until I went online and looked up some images. With a good enough author, that shouldn't be necessary. Note that I have an excellent vocabulary but it's not strong in the subject matter of this book.
I bought the book to learn more about how not to get lost in the woods, and did not learn that in the slightest.
First, much of the contents didn't pertain to the environment where I very much prefer not to get lost in the woods when I explore them, and secondly much of the nature terminology - especially kinds of flowers - was completely unfamiliar to me and not meaningfully explained.
The British author obviously tried hard to make the book relevant to American readers, but for me, too much of the language and natural phenomena were specific to Great Britain and might as well have been about Antarctica.
In addition, he explained some natural phenomena quite clearly but in many cases he overestimated the background knowledge that readers would have. For example, he talked about "crepuscular rays" and "sunbeams" but how they were different and specifically what the former were made no sense to me until I went online and looked up some images. With a good enough author, that shouldn't be necessary. Note that I have an excellent vocabulary but it's not strong in the subject matter of this book.
I bought the book to learn more about how not to get lost in the woods, and did not learn that in the slightest.
