The Book of Barely Imagined Beings: A 21st Century Bestiary by Caspar Henderson

The Book of Barely Imagined Beings: A 21st Century Bestiary Reviews

• 
  J.V. Seem

  I got this book for my birthday, having lusted after it since my sister-in-law got it for Christmas, but it wasn't exactly what I expected.
  Firstly, the title, Barely Imagined Beings: A 21st Century Bestiary, is very misleading. It's not. It has chapter titles like "axolotl", "right whale" and "dolphin", but barely mentions the animals. They are instead used as a springboard for philosophical musings about global warming, technology and the future of humanity. One chapter is on photography, another on artificial intelligence, regardless of what the chapter titles are. Animal facts sadly only make up about 10% of each chapter. ...and it makes me angry.
  That's not to say that it doesn't cover a lot of interesting topics, but it's definitely *not* what it says on the tin. The honey badger may not care that its chapter holds very few honey badger facts, but I do, I wanted to learn about animals.
  However, if you enjoy casual philosophy and literary quotes, this is your go-to book.
  The layout, typography, design and illustrations happen to be excellent.
  In the end, there are some good musings in here, and a jokey way of writing, but I'm still in need of a book of obscure animal facts.
• 
  Warwick

  
  The waterbear or ‘moss piglet’…a thing that actually exists
  
  Taking his cue from medieval bestiaries, Caspar Henderson set out to write a modern compendium of beasts, and show, in the process, that truth is a lot weirder than fiction. Forget about your griffons and basilisks, and check out things like the waterbear pictured above (in extreme close-up; they're only about half a millimetre long), the rainbow-coloured spider known as a sparklemuffin, or the aptly named thorny devil.
  
  
  Thorny devils survive by drinking the dew that collects in their spikes
  
  As so often with books about wildlife, one comes away with the sense that nature has a sexual imagination to make the Marquis de Sade look like a guileless schoolgirl. Turbellarian flatworms, for instance, ‘which are hermaphrodites, engage in spectacular penis fencing, using two phalluses mounted on their chests as weapons with which they attempt to pierce and impregnate each other’. Like prep school. And don't get me started on dolphins. Dolphins are filthy.
  
  

  Dolphins court and make love the year round, and with lots of foreplay – they rub, caress, mouth and nuzzle each other's genitals. Both males and females have a genital slit, so penetration is possible in both sexes, and the penis, the tip of the nose (the beak), lower jaw, dorsal or pectoral fin, and tail fluke are all used. Female Spinner dolphins have been observed riding ‘tandem’ on each other's dorsal fin, the female beneath inserting her fin into the genital slit of the other and the two swimming together in this position. Spinner dolphins of both sexes sometimes engage in orgies of more than a dozen individuals, known as ‘wuzzles’.

  
  
  Now we know why the little fuckers are always grinning. Wuzzles! This sounds like something Berlusconi's PA would be asked to set up.
  
  
  The Venus girdle is a translucent, bioluminescent swimming ribbon
  
  A preponderance of the creatures highlighted in here are marine animals, just because the sea has so many creatures that seem completely bizarre to us, from entire separate phyla of existence.
  
  Still, anyone coming into this book for pure zoological detail might end up disappointed, since Henderson uses his biological sketches as jumping-off points to talk about a whole range of disparate subjects, from early photography to AI to the history of human flight. Some readers have found this frustrating, but – while it's true that he can't get into much of anything in detail – this is an essay technique that should be familiar to most users of Goodreads; there are some people on here, after all, who can write a whole disquisition on neoplatonism or the internal combustion engine while purporting to review The Girl on the Train. Amidst the animal facts, then, are comments like this:
  
  

  [A]s Umair Haque (2011) argues, there is a massive malfunctioning of the global economy, and at the root of the problem is ‘dumb growth’, which, ‘rather than reflecting enduring wealth creation, largely reflects the transfer of wealth: from the poor to the rich, the young to the old, tomorrow to today, and human beings to corporate persons.’

  
  
  This may sound beside the point, but in fact it comes to feel like one of the guiding themes of the book. To address non-human animals at all is to address the ongoing ‘
  sixth extinction’, a grotesque inequality of power and influence to set alongside the economic inequalities listed above, and to which it has a more than incidental connection. This fact, and the human society and culture that has made it possible, are never far from Henderson's thoughts, and in the end to me this made his book stronger rather than weaker.
• 
  Mir

  An aletheiagoria.
  
  Perhaps, contrary to Plato's allegory of the cave, we sometimes only see the real once we have seen it's shadow in art.
  
  
  (Also, Henderson has reminded me that I never got around to reading
  The Book of Imaginary Beings.)
• 
  Patrizia Galli

  Chi l’avrebbe mai detto che la creatura esistente che più si avvicina al mostro Alien, dell’omonimo film di Ridley Scott, fosse una murena? Eh si, perché in natura è l’unico animale dotato di una seconda coppia di mascelle poste in fondo alla gola, che vengono proiettate in avanti molto velocemente per afferrare la preda ed altrettanto velocemente ritraggono per trascinarla nell’esofago mentre richiudono la bocca.
  Questo bestiario è tutto così, ad ogni pagina si rimane sorpresi.
  La maggior parte degli animali di cui si parla provengono dal mare, di gran lunga la zona disabitata più grande del pianeta e che contiene gli esseri più strani, bizzarri e bellissimi in cui ci si può imbattere. Perché «l'oceano profondo è molto buio: è mappato meno della Luna, o di Marte. Molte forme di vita generano da sole la loro luce. Ci sono creature che hanno un aspetto che nemmeno Salvador Dalí avrebbe potuto sognare. Per esempio, nei pressi delle caldissime fumarole ci sono vermi lunghi quanto è alto un uomo, che però si nutrono senza avere uno stomaco».
  Il metodo che segue Caspar Henderson è quello di «accostamenti improvvisi» tra temi solo a prima vista distanti tra loro, allo scopo di far «luce sulle possibilità e gli interessi dell’uomo». Così l’essere umano è presente in ogni pagina di questo poderoso e magmatico libro, perché le divagazioni e gli imprevisti arricchiscono questa lettura-viaggio con scenari astrusi e di incredibile meraviglia, saltando tra continenti ed ere geologiche, cercando di raccontarci quella che è la storia del mondo, smisurata nello spazio e nel tempo, ma unica e comprendente anche noi.
  Così, a metà tra saggio di divulgazione scientifica e storia culturale, ci imbattiamo in storie che richiamano questioni riguardanti l’esistenza, l’estinzione, l’evoluzione, la coscienza, la conoscenza, il linguaggio, la morte; tutti gli animali dialogano con questi temi e gli accostamenti non sono mai forzati, proprio questo è il bello e la forza di questo libro, tutto vi concorre in maniera armonica. Così, citando una delle tante frasi che aprono i vari capitoli, scopriamo che L’ideale perpetuo è lo stupore (…una poesia di Derek Walcott, contenuta in Egrette Bianche: perché la vita è da vivere con INCANTO, apprezzando sempre quello che riesce a sorprenderci).
  Capiamo piano piano che parlare di questi animali è una sorta di pretesto per trovare i più astrusi e brillanti e meravigliosi collegamenti immaginabili: quanta sorpresa può trovare un lettore imbattendosi in spirali, matematica e simmetria mentre di sta leggendo dell’iridogorgia? Oppure leggere del funzionamento della vista e del cervello e di come quest’ultimo colmi i nostri vuoti visivi con la deduzione mentre stiamo leggendo il capitolo sul gonodactylus? O, ancora, mentre sfogliamo il capitolo dedicato ai vermi piatti, leggere di vita e di morte e di come questa sia il destino irrimediabile del nostro pianeta, ma nonostante questo sperare, perché sappiamo che un’intera planaria può rigenerarsi da una singola cellula (…) a dimostrazione che i miracoli esistono, nella vita; oppure di come tutto questo meraviglioso affresco abbia inizio con una citazione di un racconto di Cortazar, Axolotl, proprio nel primo capitolo dedicato a questa piccola salamandra (in grado miracolosamente di rigenerare parti del corpo che le vengono recise). Sono andata a leggermi il racconto di Cortazar, contenuto nella raccolta Fine del Gioco, ed è un piccolo capolavoro: come negli altri libri in cui mi sono imbattuta dello scrittore argentino anche qui assistiamo ad un crollo di quelli che sono i confini del razionale e del logico, dello spazio e del tempo da noi quotidianamente conosciuti, pensati e compresi. Un libro come questo bestiario, che vuole spingerci ad essere curiosi, a ribaltare i nostri schemi, ad andare oltre il visibile non può avere un “apripista” migliore di Cortazar, che ha fatto dell’erosione dei concetti più classici e razionali dell’uomo quali lo spazio e il tempo uno dei capisaldi della sua letteratura. Ormai flessibili e permeabili questi devono essere soggetti ad inversioni, alterazioni, passaggi dagli esiti assurdi che servono semplicemente a farci andare al di là del conosciuto e del logico.
• 
  Nemo ☠️ (pagesandprozac)

  this is certainly an interesting and important book, a cabinet of faunal curiosities in the form of a book, and at the beginning i was certain i was going to give it five stars.
  
  but here's the thing: there is an animal (or very occasionally, two) for each letter of the alphabet. one would therefore expect each section to be very tightly focused on the animal in question. instead, each chapter was absolutely FULL of tangents which sometimes managed to loop back to the original material, and sometimes just appeared to be there for no apparent reason.
  
  this would not have been that much of a problem if it had only happened a couple of times, but it was in essentially every single chapter and i found myself being very frustrated by this indeed.
  
  there were also some slightly iffy scientific definitions and exclusions that weren't horrendous, per se, but i'm afraid that i'm a terrible nit-picker and so i couldn't help but get irritated at the fact that there is a few paragraphs or so related to game theory and evolution that somehow managed to avoid mentioning the tit-for-tat evolutionary strategy outlined in dawkins' the selfish gene, arguably one of the most important discoveries on the whole matter. other minor annoyances included saying that a microbe lyses when it's killed by a virus, which is true, but it's also true of every single other cell in the world, not just microbes; and also the description of a phenotype as "the ensemble of traits and characteristics of an organism", which sort of implies that every organism has only one phenotype that encompasses every single trait and characteristic of it, rather than one organism being made up of many phenotypes.
  
  and YES, i KNOW i'm nit-picking. i KNOW. i just can't help it.
  
  in conclusion, i would say this is worth reading. it showcases some fascinating animals and has some wonderful facts, but bear in mind my various criticisms. the whole tangent thing is probably a matter of taste; lots of people probably liked that.
• 
  Hilary

  This fascinating book is a thing of beauty in itself, its design influenced by the exquisite medieval bestiaries with their vignettes of marvellous creatures, their rubrics and historiated capitals. The structure is based around essays on 27 living creatures that exist but seem to push at the boundaries of human imagination. These are prefaced by an introduction that is equally full of insight - I urge you not to skip it.
  
  The essays in the book can be dipped into - however, there is a strong thread of interconnection binding them together, and some themes occur and recur in more than one. So this is a multidimensional book that can be read in a variety of ways. Interconnectedness is the strongest theme, as the author seeks to illustrate both the tenuous nature and the underlying strength of survival of life on earth. The point of focusing on 'barely imagined beings' is to remind us how far from omniscient we are about the creatures with whom we share the Earth, and how heedlessly we have have ignored warning signs of ecological disaster caused by our actions.
  
  Here is my full review on Vulpes Libris:
  
  
  http://vulpeslibris.wordpress.com/201...
• 
  Nicky

  Caspar Henderson's 21st Century Bestiary is not an encyclopaedia, as some people might expect, but something more in the medieval tradition of bestiaries, mixing information with philosophical and moral comment. It's interesting, and Henderson's ideas are well expressed, and I imagine a full colour version of the book must be stunning (my own is the paperback, all in black and white, but I seem to recall seeing a colour edition). It's definitely not all that scientific, in places, relying on anecdote and going off on tangents into what an organism might have to teach us.
  
  One of Henderson's major concerns is the environment, and the preservation of Earth's current biodiversity, for which he makes a good case. Ultimately, if your interest is science, this will probably be unsatisfying: it's here to demonstrate some of the scope of biodiversity, not to explain it, or even to go very deeply into any one scientific principle (though it touches on plenty).
  
  I do wish it had been better edited -- the typos and such are extremely distracting. All in all, it isn't quite as good as I'd expected from the rave reviews and my quick glance over it in the shop, but it is interesting.
• 
  Ints

  Par šo grāmatu biju dzirdējis jau sen. Pirmo reizi viņa man acīs iekrita, kad 2013. gadā tā iekļuva Royal Society Winton Prize šortlistā. Šķita tāda laba grāmata par dzīvniekiem un ekoloģiju. Taču lasāmā bija daudz, un grāmatas iegāde atlikās. Šogad ar viņu sastapos grāmatu veikalā, pašķirstīju un sapratu - vajag izlasīt. Tas bija jūnijā, līdz lasīšanai tiku tikai piecus mēnešus vēlāk.
  
  Šī grāmata ir veidota kā moderns bestiārijs. Lai arī anotācijā rakstīts - no Aksolota līdz Zebraszivīm, grāmata nav tikai par divdesmit septiņiem dzīvniekiem. Šī grāmata ir veidota pēc viduslaiku bestiāriju parauga. Stāsts ir ne tikai par kādu konkrētu radību, bet arī satur diezgan nesaistītas tēmas, kuras sevī lielākoties ietver ekoloģiju, cilvēku ietekmi uz dabu. Autors nevairās arī no anekdotiskiem notikumu atstāstiem un nepiemirst iekļaut arī pa kādai morālai pamācībai. Taču vislabākais ir tas, ka daļa no pieminētajiem dzīvniekiem pārsit viduslaiku iedomātos briesmoņus. Dabas iespējas ir daudz lielākas nekā cilvēka fantāzija, un bieži vien daba ir daudz skaistāka un dīvaināka, nekā mēs spējam iedomāties.
  
  Šī grāmata noteikti ir viena no labākajām grāmatām par dabaszinātnēm, kuru pēdējā laikā ir nācies lasīt. Viņā ir viss, ko es sagaidu no grāmatas par dzīvniekiem.
  
  Pirmkārt, tie ir zīmējumi un fotogrāfijas, ir taču tik forši, kad sākot lasīt nodaļu tu galveno vaininieku vari apskatīt mākslinieciskā izpildījumā. Man gan nav krāsainā ilustrētā versija biezajos vākos, tur skats noteikti ir daudz iespaidīgāks.
  
  Otrkārt, stāstījuma stils. Tas neaprobežojas tikai ar faktu atstāstīšanu vien. Nu tā kā enciklopēdijās - vidējais svars, izplatības areāls, grūtniecības ilgums un metiens. Reizēm šie fakti tiek pieminēti, bet, ja nav pārāk interesanti, tad tie ir palikuši aiz borta. Toties autors apzinoties papīra kā mēdija formāta ierobežotību, brīvi tekstā dod padomus kā internetā atrast visforšākos video, ko par zvēreļiem vien var dabūt.
  
  Treškārt, dzīvnieki ir ielikti kontekstā. Šis konteksts ir cilvēks un tā ietekme uz ekosistēmām. Cilvēkam ir dots ne tikai saprast un izpētīt citas sugas, viņam ir dots arī tās iznīcināt un noslaucīt no zemes virsmas. Tādēļ laiku pa laikam stāsts novirzās uz šķietami nesaistītām tēmām. Kā stāstot par japāņu makakiem pēkšņi sākt runāt par tirāniju un elitārismu. Taču visas atkāpes ir par tēmu. Kas to būtu domājis, ka foršie Japānas makaki, kurus parasti rāda vannojoties siltajos avotos ziemas spelgonī, patiesībā ir tikai izredzētākie no makakiem. Pārējais bars lielākoties sēž un drebinās turpat netālu sniegā.
  
  Saliekot visu šo kopā un autora spēju atrast interesantus faktus. Pie tam viņam piemīt tā retā spēja interesantās lietas interesanti pastāstīt. Jā varbūt ne visas šīs interesantās lietas ir zinātniski pamatotas, bet kādēļ gan neļaut savai fantāzijai izmest līkumu. Galu gala lasām taču bestiāriju nevis ievadu zooloģijas kursā. Un veids, kā autors ir iemanījies iespiest iekšā faktus, kurus nekādi nav sanācis iekļaut stāstījumā, ir izcils. Šeit ir nevis zemsvītras piezīmes, bet lappušu malas piezīmes, kurās var atrast daudzas interesantas lietas, piebildes un lietas, kuras būtu grēks nepieminēt.
  
  Izlasot šo grāmatu, mans personīgais ieguvums ir daudzu balto plankumu aizpildīšanu gan vēsturē, gan bioloģijā. Piemēram, nekad nebiju iedomājies par vālu medību industriālajiem apmēriem un to ietekmi uz vaļu populāciju. Tas savukārt samazināja vaļu mēslu nonākšanu okeānā, kas savukārt ir laba barotne fitoplanktonam, kurš savukārt ražo skābekli. Pasaulē nekas nav tā pat viss ir sasaistīts kopējā sistēmā un šī grāmata lieliski ilustrē šo sistēmu no dažādiem aspektiem. Skumjākais ir tas, ka iespējams esam pēdējā paaudze, kad zemes klimats ir vēl kaut cik normāls. Un es nemaz nepieminu murēnu, kura uzbrūkot atvemj otru žokļu pāri labākam satvērienam vai sūkli Tetrahymena thermophilia ar septiņiem iespējamiem dzimumiem un 21 veidu kā radīt pēcnācējus.
  
  Lieku 10 no 10 ballēm. Ja es pie šādas grāmatas tiktu bērnu dienās, tad droši vien nekad neizlaistu to ārā no rokām. Noteikti zinātu daudz vairāk nekur lāgā nevajadzīgus faktus un, iespējams, tomēr būtu kļuvis par arheologu. Ja interesē pasaule mums apkārt, noteikti izlasiet, dabūsiet bagātu faktoloģisku materiālu, uzzināsiet daudzus interesantus atgadījumus un pie reizes labi pavadīsiet laiku!
  
• 
  Marijana ☕✨

  "Still, one thing seems clearer to me than ever: we are only fully human when we act as if the life beyond us matters."
  
  Ova knjiga nije striktno o životinjama, u mnogim poglavljima je životinja samo asocijacija za neka otkrića ili probleme sa kojima se svet suočava. Henderson je najviše predstavio morska stvorenja, verovatno zato što o njima obično najmanje i znamo. Nisu sva bića u ovoj knjizi ugrožena, ali kako autor navodi, to ne znači da ne treba podići svest o njima i da im neće pretiti ekstinkcija. U svakom poglavlju se našlo nešto što me je dodatno zaintrigiralo i navelo na dalje guglanje i istraživanje. Jedino što ovom izdanju fali je više slika stvorenja, pogotovo u boji.
• 
  Charlotte Dale

  I don't usually write reviews but I feel like this deserves a justification of why I rated it three stars, since I was concerned three stars is quite harsh for a book that is clearly very well researched.
  
  The issue I had with this book was that it has SUCH an excellent premise that I should have been fascinated by. However, the premise was not remotely what the book delivered.
  
  The alphabetical nature of the book seemed as though it was completely redundant, as certain animals were listed by their English, Latin or native names depending on which fit better, there was no consistency to it. For example, honey badger one would think would go under H, but it's listed as kiripha-ko, which allows it to neatly fit under K. Similarly, Goblin Shark should go under G, but instead it's listed under U for a chapter entitled: 'In Search of a Unicorn: Goblin Shark.' Then X gets two separate chapters despite the fact the rest of the book is one 'being' per chapter, which seems unbalanced.
  
  Another reason the individual chapters are completely redundant as a layout is because, as other reviewers have said, the author delves into incredibly long tangents that often don't circle back to the original point. It felt as though I were lucky to get two pages in a chapter dedicated to the animal in question, then the next 15-20 pages would be struggling through almost completely unrelated subject matter in the hopes that it would pay off at the end of the chapter, which it very rarely did.
  
  Another issue I had was that occasionally I would read a brief mention of a dinosaur or something that I would find very interesting, only to look it up and find that the description given in the book was something that had been disproven years ago - this led me, perhaps unfairly, to question the veracity of the rest of the book.
  
  The bright side is that the book is visually beautiful, it DOES have an excellent premise (even if it doesn't entirely deliver), and generally it is very well researched and written by an author who is clearly passionate about the pursuit of knowledge. If it had more editing so it focused far more tightly on the subject matter at hand and retained consistency of chapters, it would be a five star book.
• 
  Joseph Steinberg

  If you find the prospect of encountering a Lucihormetica luckae (via SGU #411) scary but just a little awe-inspiring, you would find Caspar Henderson‘s The Book of Barely Imaginary Beings utterly rapturous. A thousand authors could probably recreate Henderson’s bestiary, itself a tribute to Jorge Luis Borges‘ Book of Imagined Beings, and put only a small dent in humanity’s ignorance of the worlds around them. It’s not a Disney experience.
  
  
  http://humesbastard.wordpress.com/201...
• 
  Christine

  This would have been far more interesting if there had been more about the animals as opposed to digression after digression showing me how well read and travelled the author was.
  
  
  
  Some of it is interesting and some of it is, oh no, here we go again.
  
• 
  Maciek Białous

  Bardzo szanuję erudycję, ale w tym przypadku skala dygresji, skakania po tematach i wyszukiwania najbardziej pretensjonalnych cytatów trochę psuła radość lektury.
• 
  Zuumi

  4.5
• 
  Margaryta

  I couldn't finish this book for one particular reason - I found it a bit too complicated for me. There is so much interesting things to read in it though, so many facts and perspectives and seeing them all tied back to the human condition and human nature was just fantastic to see. The introduction was already so strong and bang-on that I was really excited to read it. What stopped me, however, was the complexity.
  
  This book is primarily for people who are really interested in animals and have read about the discoveries made by various biologists and zoologists and the theories and history revolving around the whole topic. Me, being a simple teenager who doesn't focus on those kinds of things, just couldn't keep up with the amount of information that was being laid out before me.
  
  This fact didn't stop me from enjoying what I DID read, because the half or so of the book that I got through was really interesting and had such a big punch of new and eye-opening facts and information that it really captured my interest. I'm sad that I can't finish this, but as it's sitting on my table for 6 weeks already and needs to be returned to the library I cannot finish it. I'll definitely consider picking this one up again though in several years, after which maybe I've learned a bit more to make me appreciate this book for the gem that it really is.
• 
  Nick

  We humans could perhaps be pardoned for our anthro-centric view of the world until the arrival of the Gutenberg press. After that, with the widespread dissemination of ideas pretty well taken care of, we have much less excuse. Then came the Internet, the Blue Planet, and a host of other modern wonders, and everyone has the option to know everything -- the limits of time and patience aside, of course. Thus it was with considerable surprise that I learned, by reading this book, that I only had the barest beginning of an understanding of the weird and wonderful living things sequestered on this unremarkable planet located on a distant arm of a minor galaxy. Things that live in slime, that are smaller than the period at the end of this sentence, that change their sex at will, that live in vents, and can survive outer space -- the list goes on an on. Don't read this book if you need to hang onto the belief that people are special and the center of the universe. Do read it if you want to wander, with a wonderful writer, through a few of the incredible by-ways of life, and ponder the varieties of ways that chemicals can combine to produce wiggly things.
• 
  Baal Of

  This is a gorgeous book, and a joy to read, despite the dire message that is woven throughout that we have entered the Anthropocene and are rapidly destroying species and biospheres at an unprecedented rate. Henderson uses the various creatures of each chapter as a launching point to take free ranging discussions into a variety of topics centered around biology, evolution, conservation, pollution, technology, and biodiversity. The messages here are scary, and will not make those of certain political ideology happy, but they are important messages. Unfortunately, I think these messages will continue to fall on deaf ears, ignored through outright denial, and the problems will remain unaddressed until it is far too late. Nevertheless, this book provides an amazing and beautiful insight into the stunning variety of creatures that have evolved on this planet.
• 
  Greg

  Caspar Henderson's modern bestiary is a masterful blending of the odd, the erudite and the philosophical. The book is an A-Z of unusual life forms that Henderson uses as a platform for fascinating digressions and musings on scientific discovery, evolution and the impact that humans have had on the world we live in. Some of his digressions are surprising - the minute winterbear gives rise to a discussion on space travel for example - but the book flows logically and never flags.
  
  This is a sumptuous book full of line drawings, maps, photos and marginalia. Henderson's footnoting is very effective, using coloured text to guide the eye, rather than numbered superscripts. Books like this are the reason why ebooks will never entirely replace the physical form.
• 
  Erika

  I was totally obsessed with this book as I was reading it! In this modern "bestiary," based on the creature anthologies of old, Henderson discusses our relationship with the natural world, peppering easy-to-read scientific explanations with literary and philosophical musings. This book felt nourishing to read, and Henderson's enthusiasm and awe at even the world's tiniest creatures is contagious. Not only was this non-fiction book filled with fascinating information about the natural world, from axolotls to Japanese macaques, for the novice nature-lover and academic alike, but it's downright fun to read. I loved it and was sad to come to its end.
• 
  Michael

  An A-Z listing of some (generally) little known creatures which the author uses as springboards for more general musings.
  
  The author chose an eclectic and unusual sampling of animals and part of the fun of the book is seeing where he goes with them. Not a book to buy if you want detailed zoological information, but an interesting and diverting set of essays about life, the universe and everything.
• 
  Cosimo Nencioni

  Meraviglioso. L’autore trae spunto dai vari animali mostratici per parlare di scienza, storia della scienza, filosofia e un migliaio di altri argomenti, in un flusso ininterrotto di citazioni e pensieri. Probabilmente non ho capito niente di quello che ho letto (alcune spiegazioni sono molto dettagliate), ma mi ha entusiasmato come pochi altri libri.
• 
  Jenna

  Entertaining but rather than a bestiary it seemed more a compendium of animals that reminded the author of other things. Wanted more images / photographs / diagrams of the animals rather than simply the fantastical artwork of it.
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  Siobhan Ward

  I'm always a fan of books of eclectic information and this was a pretty fun read. I knew at least a tiny bit about most of the species Henderson covered, but it was fun to learn more. Henderson mixed information about the species with information about the wider world (a book about beings and being), and while this wasn't my favourite part, since I found it got dry in places, it was a cool idea.
  
  Some parts were a bit too much or too detailed for me, but I understand how others may appreciate it. However, my biggest qualm is that there were a few parts that seemed to be missed by an editor, and I always hate finding these things in nonfiction books. If there are simple mistakes (span is not the past tense of spin, and gender/sex cannot be used interchangeably in the context of reptilian biology) I always wonder how accurate the rest of the book is... It's definitely still a fun read, though.
• 
  Pino Sabatelli

  Ispirato da "Il libro degli esseri immaginari" di Borges, Henderson prova a creare un bestiario per il nuovo millennio, parlandoci di ventisette animali reali ma "assai più bizzarri di quelli immaginari": "a malapena immaginabili", appunto.
  Nell'introduzione l'Autore dichiara di voler esplorare attraverso "accostamenti improvvisi" cosa ci lega a quegli animali, utilizzando gli strumenti della biologia evolutiva e riflettendo sul le conseguenze del comportamento umano sul loro habitat e sul pianeta tutto.
  Henderson per primo riconosce che alcune "analogie e digressioni hanno poco a che fare con gli animali in sé" e che gli esiti di quegli accostamenti sono talvolta "un po' forzati". Il problema vero, però, è che quelle "analogie e digressioni" sono anche tantissime e, spesso, interminabili...
  Il risultato finale è una lettura davvero faticosa, peraltro corredata da un apparato iconografico del tutto insufficiente. Un difetto non da poco visto il costo del libro.
• 
  Murat Sahin Ocal

  Evrimsel biyoloji üzerine çok eğlenceli, bilgilendirici bir popüler bilim kitabı. Okurken Youtube ve Google araştırmalarıyla o kadar çok zaman geçiriyorsunuz ki 450 sayfalık kitabı bitirmek on gün sürebiliyor. Kitap kendini dar bir alanla sınırlandırmayıp sosyal psikolojiden tarihe geniş ilgi alanlarına da açık bir ilgi alanına yaymış.
  Çeviri Deniz Keskin tarafından yapılmış. Popüler bilim kitabına Nabokov çevrisi özeni gösterilmiş. Türkçesi çok başarılı. Yalın ve zengin bir dille çeviri yapılmış. Ellere gönüllere sağlık. Nihayet Metis Yayınlarını da isabetli seçimi ve özenli baskı ve tasarımı için kutlamak gerek.
• 
  Lydia

  I loved this book, although it took me longer to read than most as I was constantly googling pictures and videos of all the animals and going down rabbit holes! I learnt a lot, not only about zoology/biology but also philosophy, economics, politics etc. the list goes on. It’s definitely not just a book of animal facts but an excellent series of essays covering multiple subjects. Would recommend if that’s what you’re looking for.
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  Sophia

  Recently my school got back from winter break, and I am so glad I got this book. Now instead of saying something boring when my teachers ask what I did over break, I just say I was reading about "The fastest gentiles in the west..." and my classmates instantly respect me.
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  Nachtreich

  Troppe digressioni che portano a parlare dell'uomo piuttosto che dell'animale del capitolo specifico però.