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Catching up on media
I read Bernd Heinrich’s _The Geese of Beaver Bog_. It’s short. It’s compelling — I really wanted to know what was going to happen next! I really liked Heinrich’s approach to the project, the book, and the organization of the book. I would read more by him. Short form: when Heinrich’s kids were young-ish, his son wanted to raise a Canada goose. Over the next several years, Heinrich got really into the local goose population’s behavior, and had occasional interactions with the grown goose on its occasional drop-ins when migrating. In the appendices, he describes the work of other ethologists, such as Lorenz, with other goose (graylay, notably). He handles Lorenz’s Nazism forthrightly.
I _wish_ that Heinrich were less contemptuous of human influence over animal development over the millenia / millions of years we’ve been on this planet together. He’s still using terms like “indigenous man” and verbs like “inadvertent”. He just can’t seem to see how managed, how _un_wild “wild” animals (but especially ones like these!) are. There is no real thing such as wild or tame; it’s a spectrum. Anyway. Great book, worth the time.
We read Heinrich for book group. The discussion was not one of our longer ones, and while it was enjoyable, it was relatively tame. But that’s fine! We’re going to read _Painting Chinese_ next month. I’m quite pleased that people are finally taking seriously my, hey, let’s read short books idea. Now that I’ve given up entirely on enforcing the under 300 page rule, they are suddenly complying with my request. Guess that’s what happens when you let them pick things over 450 pages a few months in a row. FAAFO.
I read a sample I downloaded a while ago, of _Strengths-Based Prevention_, by Victoria Banyard and Sherry Hamby. It’s pretty list-y. A lot of what they list is very familiar. It’s probable that the book has great information that could be interesting to learn, but on the other hand, it’s clear from this sample that the field is still not at a point where it’s generating particularly usable options. Sadly. Maybe some day. This is part of an ongoing project to _actually read shit I downloaded_, whether purchased or samples, rather than continually buying and mostly not reading. It’s been a fun project.
I’ve also been catching up on TV, since I was gone for a weekish. That was fun. I _really_ love watching _The Equalizer_.
I _wish_ that Heinrich were less contemptuous of human influence over animal development over the millenia / millions of years we’ve been on this planet together. He’s still using terms like “indigenous man” and verbs like “inadvertent”. He just can’t seem to see how managed, how _un_wild “wild” animals (but especially ones like these!) are. There is no real thing such as wild or tame; it’s a spectrum. Anyway. Great book, worth the time.
We read Heinrich for book group. The discussion was not one of our longer ones, and while it was enjoyable, it was relatively tame. But that’s fine! We’re going to read _Painting Chinese_ next month. I’m quite pleased that people are finally taking seriously my, hey, let’s read short books idea. Now that I’ve given up entirely on enforcing the under 300 page rule, they are suddenly complying with my request. Guess that’s what happens when you let them pick things over 450 pages a few months in a row. FAAFO.
I read a sample I downloaded a while ago, of _Strengths-Based Prevention_, by Victoria Banyard and Sherry Hamby. It’s pretty list-y. A lot of what they list is very familiar. It’s probable that the book has great information that could be interesting to learn, but on the other hand, it’s clear from this sample that the field is still not at a point where it’s generating particularly usable options. Sadly. Maybe some day. This is part of an ongoing project to _actually read shit I downloaded_, whether purchased or samples, rather than continually buying and mostly not reading. It’s been a fun project.
I’ve also been catching up on TV, since I was gone for a weekish. That was fun. I _really_ love watching _The Equalizer_.