The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating in Around the World in 80 Books

Mar 31, 2011 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was amazing

Shelves: memoir-and-autobiographical-essays, 100-best-of-21st-c, contemplation

“Time unused and only endured still vanishes, as if time itself is starving, and each day is swallowed whole, leaving no crumbs, no memory, no trace at all.”

I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the natural world and/or the meaning of life, anyone who is interested in pondering things, the way things are, the way things could be, the passage of time … It's more of an essay than a "book" - I spent a wonderful hour reading and I'm over 1/3 of the way through. Don't hesitate to “Time unused and only endured still vanishes, as if time itself is starving, and each day is swallowed whole, leaving no crumbs, no memory, no trace at all.”

I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the natural world and/or the meaning of life, anyone who is interested in pondering things, the way things are, the way things could be, the passage of time … It's more of an essay than a "book" - I spent a wonderful hour reading and I'm over 1/3 of the way through. Don't hesitate to check this one out. Beautifully written and captivating!

Basic summary: Ms Bailey was suddenly and unexpectedly afflicted with a serious and life altering mystery illness, some sort of bacterial or viral infection that left her completely weakened; all she can do is lie down and hope. A friend spontaneously scoops up a snail from the nearby Maine woodlands while digging some wood violets to cheer her up. She finds herself completely captivated, charmed, and soothed by her new invertebrate roommate. Trust me though, it is FAR more wonderful than that brief description would imply.

I can't possibly write a review that is as wonderful as the book was!

*

I am sad today. After just three lunch hours, I have finished this book! I wanted more!

Also, on something of a tangent ... when I was a kid, I bought a book of short stories at a book fair; I was going through that horror phase that some kids go through, and this book was a collection of quite grown up horror stories - they were quietly twisted and mysterious. One story was about prisoners who were doomed to continue pushing a wheel, which turned their cell blocks - we didn't know why they were there or why they had to push the wheel ... One story somehow involved a garden gnome and a piece of rope ... And one story was about a guy who began to study snails, and eventually the snails multiplied to such a quantity that they sealed off his room, and then ended up crawling on him, into his throat, over his nose, ultimately suffocating him. Ugh! Hang on, there is a point to this! Throughout this lovely (and never horrifying) book, Ms Bailey frequently refers to research she has done and quotes other works, from Darwin to haiku. And one thing she quotes is The Snail Watcher, by Patricia Highsmith. And it wasn't until I was nearly done with this book that I realized THAT was one of the short stories in that long-ago and nearly forgotten collection! What a wonderfully horrifying and twisted story that was! I would love to find the rest of those stories. ...more

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Feb 16, 2011 Katie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, nature-outdoors, female-author

While confined to her bed by an illness, the author of this book, Elisabeth Bailey, becomes fascinated by a wild snail that resides in a pot of flowers on her bedside table. Since Elisabeth has little strength to do anything, she has the time to truly observe the snail’s every move. The book is a beautiful narrative of her observations of the snail interspersed with reflections on her illness, scientific data about snails, and snail poetry.

Snails are such fascinating little creatures, and this b ...more

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