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Jul 04, 2008

Jessica rated it:

Yesterday when I came out of my building, I was confronted by a giant rat standing at the bottom of the steps, looking up at me. Yeah, right at me. It was still light out, and the thing just stood there stolidly gazing up, unafraid, just, yeah, looking at me! See, my front yard is infested with large, fearless rats. They live in a hole in the dirt and frolic in the garbage. The hole's recently been plugged up, but the rats don't seem to care; as this book reminds us, they're adaptable animals. I More...

14 comments like (16 people liked it)

Jan 13, 2008

Natalie rated it:

Urban nature writing. While researching rats, Sullivan also tells the story of the social history of the New York alley he becomes a fixture in. He becomes this fixture so the rats become comfortable with him there and they go about their business of running through restaurant garbage every night. He also attends exterminator conventions in the mid-west and is given access to the World Trade Center after 9/11 to find the rats are doing well and fine among all the death and destruction.

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0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

miriam rated it:

i started reading this book while i was working in the idaho desert without real barrier between myself and the surrounding environment (read:rodents)... after a few nights, i decided that the fact i was trying to avoid acknowledging the rats crawling on and around me as i tried to go to sleep wasn't the best time to be reading this book. this book acheives a laudable success in documenting the amazingly disgusting existence, habits and characteristics of rats, as it sets out to do, perhaps all More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Jul 24, 2007

Kena rated it:

As someone who is fascinated by the unlooked for causalities that affect human history and development, I liked reading about the parallel histories of humans and rats in NYC. The way the city’s geography, alcohol steeped underbelly and tenement past all had distinct rat relationships and were in turn shaped by the existence of the rat populations is awesome. While the overall tone was truly more of an ode to the rat, I was able to glean more about my new home and new epidemiologically r More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Sep 06, 2007

Sean rated it:

A good book with a great cover by Cooper Grad Peter Sis (also did the Whale seen on the new trains as part of the Arts for Transit program). Ah, if only everyone judged this book by its cover it would have done even better. Unfortunatelyl some smart people (unlike me) read reviews first.

The author, a layman takes on studying rats in New York by repeatedly visiting an alley that I myself have previously reported to 311 for Rat issues. There are lots of strange tid bits of informat More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Ma rated it:

An entertaining book - gives interesting details about the history of New York, and a study of urban rats' behaviour. Although the title is Rats, Sullivan is using them as a basis for a wider picture of New York (and other parts of America), its history and its inhabitants. I already know a bit about domestic rats, and like them, so wasn't as surprised (or disturbed) as other people might be, and have probably taken a different view of Sullivan's findings from his studies and experiments.
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1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Mary rated it:

Do you love rats? If so, then this book about city warriors with sharp teeth and quick wits is for you. Full of strange, wonderful and disgusting urban tales of rat life in the alleys, drainpipes and bathtubs of NYC.

From another Goodreads reviewer:

"I've always thought that they are completely misunderstood, but after reading this, I became a huge fan of rats; not merely a sympathizer but an all-out enthusiast! They're so cool! He explores where they live, their ea More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 30, 2007

Lesley rated it:

This highly informative and vastly entertaining book about the history and habitat of New York's rat population has chapters with titles like 'Where I Went to See Rats and Who Sent Me There,' 'Garbage,' 'Brute Neighbors,' and 'Rat King.'

But this book is not only about rat history, it's about New York history as well, and in addition to rats (Rattus norvegicus, in this case), we are also introduced to some very colorful and fascinating New York characters, both of present and of past More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Apr 17, 2009

Eric_W rated it:

Rats by Robert Sullivan is a fascinating study of rats and their cohabitation with humans. One particularly interesting section was on rats and plague, which, as you may know, is spread to humans by the rat flea. Apparently the Japanese were the first to experiment with the use of plague as a biological weapon during WWII under the direction of General Shiro Ishii. He discovered that the best was to infect a city with plague was to fill clay bombs with infected fleas. An attack was successfully More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 08, 2008

Lisa P. rated it:

I told my boss I wanted a pet rat (I don't know how this got started), and soon enough he was forwarding me pictures of tasty rat dishes and cooks preparing rats (i.e., street vendors singeing their fur off with torches) in China (right before our trip there!). And then Jason happened to check this book out from the library, and I couldn't resist reading along.

For some reason, I reviewed this on my myspace page and not in Goodreads. I'm behind the times!

Rats highlights th More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 06, 2007

Dave-O rated it:

In this book are more facts about rats that you can poke at with a stick. There's some great anecdotes (historical and recent) as well as profiles of colorful people that travel in rattish circles.

Unfortunately, the author has a contrived overexcited attitude he goes on his rat-ventures and it makes the second half of the book a struggle. His observations devolve into a weird fake Victorian romantic praise for rat life (or the simpler life, channeling Thoreau). His writing is fragmen More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 10, 2008

Mike rated it:

This book is not about rats. I learned a few things about them (they can collapse their bodies and can squeeze through any hole as big as their heads; they can take cats in a fight), but this book was mostly about the author's life and interviews of all sorts of terminally dull people intimately or slightly connected to rats. He made extermination boring (impossible!). The author himself was kind of a wuss when it came to both rats (understandable) and his interview subjects (deplorable in a jou More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Oct 21, 2008

KT rated it:

I'm tried, but just couldn't seem to get into this one. It didn't hold my attention like I thought it would. I skipped around, and didn't really go back to the parts I skipped over.

He does do a nice job of giving plenty of historic detail to NYC locations/people/events/institutions (including 9/11)--one thing I think my friend Michelle alluded to her review, but like her, I was left wanting on the rat behavior front. For us fieldworkers/natural historians, you gotta get in there wit More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 05, 2008

Jenna rated it:

Another great idea for a book that fell a bit flat. Sullivan spent a great deal of time sitting in an alley watching rats, but I don't think he really "discovered" all that much that wasn't already known. He mentions several scientists whose experiences would have been much more informative and interesting to read than this bit. For instance, one scientists takes rats off a street in Baltimore and then presents them with various bits of garbage to see which they prefer; Sullivan rem More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 17, 2011

Christopher rated it:

I was really eager to read this book , it seemd so interesting but i was wrong to be excited about it. This book was very disappointing altogether. There was nothing in it about rats that couldnt be found on wikipedia or just commonly known about rats. The author was more inclined to swing off in tangents about the history of New York city and his chapers on pest control were just plain boring.

I kept waiting to be told something really interestng, but it never happened. Dissapointing, not reccom More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Jesse rated it:

Yay rats! I've always had an affection for rats... I think it's the idea that they live in a secret underground/between walls world that I will never be able to see. I've always thought that they are completely misunderstood, but after reading this, I became a huge fan of rats; not merely a sympathizer but an all-out enthusiast! They're so cool! He explores where they live, their eating habits, their sex life (very active), and presents them as a reflection of human activity in the city. An More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 02, 2009

Katherine rated it:

This is a book I was scared to read. Living in New York who would voluntarily want to learn about the proximity of rats to human life? Despite the occasional "sick-to-my-stomach" feeling, this was an enlightening account of the habits and history of rats in New York. Robert Sullivan's scope stretches the length of Manhattan and into the Bushwick neighborhood where I teach - he even mentions the community action organization that helped found my school. Sullivan follows the myths, l More...

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Jan 16, 2012

manyhighways rated it:

Sullivan spent over a year observing rats in an alley in lower Manhattan but his observations are not the major subject of the book. The rat-watching nights he describes at the alley are not nearly as interesting as the people he interviews: exterminators, city employees, residents of rat infested buildings and scientists.

Because of the knowledge Sullivan learns from those he interviews, the book is a good primer on basic rat behavior and habits. Surprisingly, it's also a history of More...

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Aug 10, 2011

Alec rated it:

This is a great read, especially for anyone who lives in New York City--so I'm going to speak to you folks.

You know they're there, even when you don't see them. More likely than not you've seen them scurrying about, from trash bag to subway platform to sewer grate. Some are merely the size of your foot; others, although not confirmed, can be as big as a baby elephant. It is hard to live in the city for a period of time without having a rat story of your own.

This book ta More...

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Aug 05, 2011

Mark rated it:

This is a great book, from its excellent cover right through to its unexpectedly entertaining end-notes. I bought a copy as travel reading because (a) I read a great review in the LRB (http://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n06/wils07_.htm...) and (b) we had a rat story of our own recently.

One evening my partner started down the cellar stairs to fetch a bottle of wine for dinner, then stopped, a few steps from the bottom and a long way from the wine, and stood there peering at the floor for a long time. Ther More...

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Aug 23, 2010

Abigail rated it:

This is a rambling and ultimately disappointing book. Rats as a microcosm of human history should make a fascinating study, but...they don't. At least, not here. The author seems unable to decide what his book is really about. Is it about his daily observations of rats in an alley in New York? Is it about New York City itself with rats as a vehicle and focal point? Is it about human history in relation to rats? The author jumps randomly between these lines of thought, giving none of them serious More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 25, 2010

Frank rated it:

This mainly feels like a New Yorker article that went on far too long. It meanders and maunders all over the place, and many of the chapters appear to be completely irrelevant filler.

Still, the second chapter, simply describing the biology of the city rat, is filled with the kind of fun factoids that I wanted when I picked up the book. Rats usually live about a year, can have sex up to twenty times a day, gestate over just twenty-one days, and their nibbling causes about a fourth of More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 10, 2009

Joselito rated it:

There are rats in my apartment. I see them all the time, both night and day. While working with my computer, they would climb in the nearby pile of books. Sometimes a big one would pass right in front of me at my table, perhaps unaware that I'm just there right in front of him. So I read this book.

It's not so much about rats, however, than about people who had been, or are, involved with rats. And since rats are known carriers of diseases, plagues were also discussed.

Rat More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Oct 12, 2009

Kid rated it:

Rats is a bald "book proposal" project that never transcends the limitations of its genetics. We can imagine Sullivan telling his agent that he wants to spend a year watching rats in NYC while jotting down his thoughts and experiences. The agent sells the project with a phone call to Bloomsbury or something. Sullivan clearly approaches the project as a one year job - which is fine - we all gotta eat. But this could have been an incredible journey into an unknown and fascinating secret More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jan 06, 2011

Julie rated it:

I read this book based on a recommendation, and overall I enjoyed it. I started reading it in a noisy cafe, couldn't concentrate, read five pages, and put it away. I picked it up again two days later and finished it that day.

Sullivan's prose is sometimes difficult to trudge through, but he has an interesting subject in New York City rats. Over the course of a year, he observes rats in an alley in lower Manhattan; he refers to this as "ratting." Throughout the book he also int More...

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Jan 09, 2012

Matt rated it:

Rats are everywhere and they're awesome. And gross.

In the book Sullivan picks a sort-of-forgotten-about alley in lower Manhattan, near Wall St. where he studies and observes the rat population near the area.

But the book really is more a collection of stories of his interactions with not only rats, but exterminators, politicians, and every day people and their rat stories too. Mixed with that are little historical tidbits of where rats came from (and why, and which ones are More...

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Jun 21, 2011

Dona rated it:

Loved it. Sullivan's thorough research, keen observations and philosophical musings were on target, as usual. Going beyond developing parallels between the rat race and the human race, Sullivan emphasizes the importance of seeing and observation. He talks about how Larry McAdams, the highest ranking exterminator in NYC "sees the city in a way that most people don't--in layers. He sees the parks and the streets and then he sees the subways and the sewers and even the old tunnels underneath t More...

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Jan 26, 2010

Jesse rated it:

Rats are always interesting. This book, however, was not-- very strangely organized, it obviously lacked a strong editor. There were a lot of portions that seemed entirely out of place, whether barely-connected history or unnecessary personal narrative by the author. The principal organization of the book is the author's remarks on spending a year in an alley watching rats, and at this point, the framing device of "One Year In..." has gotten so old by now that it's likely to make you f More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 01, 2009

Eric rated it:

This book was actually recommended by a writer for Wizards of the Coast for some real-world inspiration for RPG campaign building. It was pretty interesting and gave me new perspective on big city life and rats, neither of which I've had much exposure to (thank god :))

You could see the relationships of rats and humans and the reality of living in that kind of situation. It reads like Gorillas in the Mist, except the author camps out in back alleys and doesn't become one of the pack More...

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Nov 05, 2009

Mark rated it:

I enjoyed this book by George Sullivan. Sullivan is a very entertaining writer. Readers oh his will soon realize that he is an admirer of Whitman and Thoreau and we see that he tries their ability to bring the reader in and make reading an intimately shared experience.

I like that Sullivan decided to focus on the most lowly of the cities inhabitants. I appreciate his cleber and passionate portraits of the the exterminators that try to control the cities rat population.

I More...

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