Rating: 
Summary: Birding at its worst
Review: I'm an avid birder, but this book was very disappointing. Filled with, at most, mildly amusing anecdotes about obsessive people "twitching" (as the Brits call it) to add to their country lists, I had trouble finishing it. This is birding at its most fatuous. The author concedes that chasing rare birds has no intrinsic value, bringing into question whether reading about the chasers has any value, either.Kenn Kaufman's "Kingbird Highway" and George Levine's "Lifebirds" are much better books that capture the joy of birding and transcend the pointlessness of mere listing.
Rating:
Summary: Birding at its worst
Review: I'm an avid birder, but this book was very disappointing. Filled with, at most, mildly amusing anecdotes about obsessive people "twitching" (as the Brits call it) to add to their country lists, I had trouble finishing it. This is birding at its most fatuous. The author concedes that chasing rare birds has no intrinsic value, bringing into question whether reading about the chasers has any value, either. Kenn Kaufman's "Kingbird Highway" and George Levine's "Lifebirds" are much better books that capture the joy of birding and transcend the pointlessness of mere listing.
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