Rating: 
Summary: Once in a Lifetime
Review: For anyone interested in birds, birdwatching, or following your dreams this is a good read. For a teenager to have such a year as recounted here and be able to write in an entertaining way is truly a treat. Highly recommended.
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Summary: Kaufman Becomes a Birding Fanatic
Review: Great read. Any serious birder will like it as will a general audience that likes books along the lines of William Least-Moon.
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Summary: freedom on the road
Review: I must say travel essays are becoming my favorite read and this book was an enjoyable one. The author does not leave the novice birder in the dust in his birding quests and actually envelopes the reader in his lust to see/hear the many birds he enjoyed. For the avid birder this is highly recomended.
Rating:
Summary: A road book with a passion
Review: I read this book a couple of years ago ,haven't been writing reviews for long;but thought I would go back to this fine effort.I've read a lot of " road" books by some of the best; such as Heat-Moon,Kerouac,Mc Murtry,Peterson/Fisher,Steinbeck,Teale,Caldwell ;but as good as these were, none were written with the passion and self involvement that Kaufman brings to this book.He didn't set out to roam the country to escape,find himself,to discover the people or country.He set with the purpose of finding as many bird species as he could in one year ; wrote a book about it,and even though the goal was not just to write a book; he produced one that is as good as the "best".As a Birder ,we have all experienced many of the things he did ;but without the endurance,passion and commitment that he did.I thought I experienced cold along the Niagara River looking for Gulls in the Winter;but this was mild compared to sleeping in a car on the East coast when it was "cold as an Eskimo's tomb",eating from a can of cold soup at the ABA onvention,or having "his" scope blown away during a storm while doing the Christmas Bird count.If you like road books;but even more so if you enjoy nature/birding you just gotta read this gem !In my opinion he is right up there with the best of them.
Rating:
Summary: A road book with a passion
Review: I read this book a couple of years ago ,haven't been writing reviews for long;but thought I would go back to this fine effort.I've read a lot of " road" books by some of the best; such as Heat-Moon,Kerouac,Mc Murtry,Peterson/Fisher,Steinbeck,Teale,Caldwell ;but as good as these were, none were written with the passion and self involvement that Kaufman brings to this book.He didn't set out to roam the country to escape,find himself,to discover the people or country.He set with the purpose of finding as many bird species as he could in one year ; wrote a book about it,and even though the goal was not just to write a book; he produced one that is as good as the "best".As a Birder ,we have all experienced many of the things he did ;but without the endurance,passion and commitment that he did.I thought I experienced cold along the Niagara River looking for Gulls in the Winter;but this was mild compared to sleeping in a car on the East coast when it was "cold as an Eskimo's tomb",eating from a can of cold soup at the ABA onvention,or having "his" scope blown away during a storm while doing the Christmas Bird count.If you like road books;but even more so if you enjoy nature/birding you just gotta read this gem !In my opinion he is right up there with the best of them.
Rating:
Summary: A Classic in the Making
Review: I usually give books away after I read them, but this is a keeper. I know I will want to read it again, probably more than once. Not only is it inspirational reading for those who love birds, but it's great travel writing and a moving coming-of-age story as well. Not only that, but the illustrations(also by Kaufman) are charmers as well. Kaufman's trip to St. Laurence Island , between Alaska and Siberia, with its spiritual overtones, remains the high point for me. I think this book is going to develop a substantial public. I recommend it to anyone, not just bird folks.
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Summary: A fascinating rite of passage
Review: I won't repeat what others have summarized about the content of this book. The story appealed to me on many levels. As a birder, it is indeed exciting to read the accounts of the multitudes of species seen. Once you realize that there are hundreds of different birds around you there is an understandible desire to SEE them all. (It's a way of collecting that doesn't require much storage space). As someone who grew up in the post-hitch-hiking era (who would dream of living this way now?), I can experience vicariously a lost way of life. The deepest impression that this book left on me was the transformation within the author from simply wanting to SEE all of the birds to wanting to really KNOW the birds and devote a lifetime to learning and discovery. It is on this level that the author speaks to all of us, for we all find (or hope to find) our own passion.
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Summary: I just keep reading it.
Review: I'm not one to re-read books. This one I have read multiple times and will again. It is a great story, richly told of a teenager chasing birds, his dreams and his life's calling around North America in the early 1970's.There are several poingant scenes in this book that appeal to me as a birder and as a human being. Probably the best is his reaction to seeing the girl who became his wife (for a while)waiting for him to take a ferry in New England. If you have the slightest interest in nature or birds and like good books, buy this one and read it. You won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: A perfect book!
Review: If you're stuck in a boring 9-5 job after having paid your dues with years of higher education, you'll be jealous of Kenn Kaufman's freedom at a young age to do what he wanted, learn what he wanted and lay the groundwork for one of the most successful careers in birding in the U.S.
If you're a birder, or at least trying to be a birder, you'll be jealous of the amount of ground Kenn Kaufman covered in the span of a few short years to see and marvel at 100's of birds.
If you're a writer, whether published or not, you'll be jealous of Kenn Kaufman's ability to write a such vividly-rendered account of his souped-up travails engaging in one of the most sympathetic pastimes to develop among modern humans, that of birding, contextualized with his growing awareness of the impact of human encroachment on the wilderness as an increasingly serious environmental problem. Whether the story surveys Kaufman's encounters with the awfully unlucky Myrtle Warblers stuck on North Carolina's Outer Banks in the winter of '73, the transplanted Skylarks of the San Juan Islands in the Pacific Northwest, or the migrating warblers stopping for a respite at Fort Jefferson in the Tortugas; or whether Kaufman is birding with his group of friends self-dubbed the "Tucson Five," or enduring the numbing experience of "thumbing" on the road for months on end; he makes you see what he's seeing and feel what he's feeling.
Finally, if you're someone who treasures the comforts of a soft pillow at night and a warm, dry roof over your head, you have to admire Kaufman's tenacity in dealing with -- and his almost joyful tolerance of-- bad weather, having to hike for miles before finding that much-needed ride or the 669th bird for his Big Year List, and, especially, the hunger born of a budget that probably didn't quite reach shoe-string level.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Hitch Across the United States!
Review: Kaufman's FOCUS guide sure pulled me out of an ID problem I couldn't solve with my standard bird guides. Now this book reached out and grabbed me and I could not put it down until I had read it all the way through. Sure he had an obsession, but what a ride that was.
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