‘How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us’
★★★★★ – CALSPIE 9.86
Title: An Immense World
Author/Narrator: Ed Yong
Genre: Non-Fiction / Science / Nature
First published: 2022
Edition: Audio book & hardback, published by The Bodley Head in 2022
The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every animal is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving only a tiny sliver of an immense world. This book welcomes us into previously unfathomable dimensions – the world as it is truly perceived by other animals.
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As soon as I read about this book, I knew I was going to love it and I would want to treasure it, so I bought the pretty hardback. In the end I decided to listen to it on audio; the author himself narrates it. I did flick through the hardback as well, as there are a lot of footnotes AND pictures!
It was a fascinating listen. The range of senses in animals is incredibly vast and differs so greatly from one to another (and from our own!). It was an incredible journey through the animal kingdom by sense. Most I knew about, some I didn’t, but the science behind them as far as it is known was so educational to read about and absolutely in a good way.
The author explains things very well and is easy to follow. You definitely come out of this book seeing the world around you in a very different way. Who knew those seemingly silent insects make such a racket?! Or how bumblebees can sense electric fields around flowers. It’s truly fascinating stuff and I absolutely loved learning about it. It is information I will take with me as I experience my world from now on.
If you’re interested in this type of book that deals with the science side of nature, read it! It’s fantastic.
5 out of 5 stars
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CALSPIE*: 9.86
- Characters: 10
- Ambience: 10
- Language: 9.5
- Story: 10
- Pacing: 9.5
- Interest: 10
- Enjoyment: 10
*CALSPIE is designed for fiction, but I can roughly apply it to non-fiction books. I think of characters as subject. Ambience as the tone of the book. Story as the explanation. Pacing as the length and depth to which it goes into the subjects.
Lola Et La Vie 