Lifebirds

by George Lewis Levine

Book Overview

In the tradition of Annie Dillard, this book is a set of meditations on nature, in this case specifically on the way birds and birding are entangled with life, with work, family, and friends. While it delicately narrates loving engagement with birds, it is not a field guide. Its author is a birder, not a professional ornithologist. Although the book does in fact offer a surprising amount of detail about birds, it is primarily a consideration of the...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813522021
• ISBN13: 9780813522029
• Release Date: August 1995
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Length: 178 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.7" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

This is what birding is all about

I first read this book a couple of years ago. I just reread it, confirming my earlier impression: this book accurately and beautifully conveys what birding means to me. Each chapter is organized around a particular, memorable bird in the author's experience. Although he admits he's not a particularly skilled birder, he is certainly an accomplished writer. His descriptions of the surprise of birding--finding a Carolina Wren on a snowy day at Montauk when he thought he'd be looking for seabirds, or hearing the witchity-witchity of the first Common Yellothroat of spring--resonated perfectly with my own experience. A gem of a book!

The most thoughtful book about birding and birders ever writ

This is a wonderful, thoughtful book about the meaning of birding: how it changes us and our relationships with others. Levine is a sophisticated thinker and a clear writer, and discovers facets to our hobby that most of us never dreamed existed. Buy it, read it.