The Rat: A Perverse Miscellany

Rating:
Summary: Long after we're gone, the rat will still be thriving.
Review: I admit it, I am facinated by rats. This is due in part to my owning terriers, the ultimate rat-dog (the Norway rat first showed up in the British Isles in 1714, and England is the "mother country" of almost every terrier breed). I enjoyed reading this book and picking up little snippets of information about our ratty friends. The information is presented in an interesting format and if you like rats (even secretly), give the book a read. After all, long after human's are extinct, the rat will still be thriving.

Rating:
Summary: Long after we're gone, the rat will still be thriving.
Review: I admit it, I am facinated by rats. This is due in part to my owning terriers, the ultimate rat-dog (the Norway rat first showed up in the British Isles in 1714, and England is the "mother country" of almost every terrier breed). I enjoyed reading this book and picking up little snippets of information about our ratty friends. The information is presented in an interesting format and if you like rats (even secretly), give the book a read. After all, long after human's are extinct, the rat will still be thriving.

Rating:
Summary: If you hate rats you'll love it
Review: This book is a fascinating collection of literary and historical references to rats. There are quotes, urban legends, comic book covers, movie synopsis, and lots more. My favorite is a photo of an ivory carving of a ratcatcher, with the rat escaping by climbing over him. If you have a horror of rats, you'll enjoy the book. The author herself seems fascinated but horrified with them. If you like rats as pets or just as interesting animals, you will find that the book leans heavily toward the horrific and sensationalistic. References to bitten babies and devouring hordes abound. There are positive references to rats as well, but they are in the minority, including a quoted paragraph from the Rats of Nimh. Positive references have obviously only been cursorily researched. There is, for example, no reference to the history of keeping domestic rats, stories of prisoners in the Bastille taming rats, mention of Jules Verne's(!) story The Adventures of the Rat Family, though much lesser authors are quoted for much less rat-oriented literature.