August - Should Read/Should Have Read

[Stina]

This is the month to read that book that has been glaring at you from your TBR pile all year. Or a book that everybody else seems to have already read in school. Or just some book that you feel like you ought to be reading instead of what you are.

[Cheryl]

I have so many books that I put down part-way through that I had imagined maybe finishing one of those for this challenge. But then I was given a book to read and review by another BookCrosser and instead of just adding it to the pile to get to someday (I have several of those which have been on the shelf for a couple of years), I read it right away. Glad I did. It is called Ships in the Desert.

[Andy]

I read a lot of nature writing, so I felt I should have read Gilbert White's seminal Eighteenth Century work Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne. So I did.
There is some beautiful observation here, born out of a clear love of the natural world and its creatures. There is little personal reflection or narrative as you see now - these are a series of letters, published only posthumously by White's brother. There is also an alarming amount of shooting and egg and nest theft - conservation was not understood as we know it now. There are also White's theories based on his observations - some later proven correct, others (swallows and swifts hibernating?) not so much.
Overall, an important work and one with some real merit, but also very much a work of its time.

[Cheryl]

The issue of egg and nest theft is complicated. My initial feelings were very much against the concept in favor of conservation. But I recently listened to a podcast episode (the podcast is Ologies with Alie Ward and the episode was about Oology) that talked about how the information recorded by those who collected the eggs and nests are useful now in the work to conserve various species and to evaluate environmental issues.

[Stina]

Cheryl wrote: "I have so many books that I put down part-way through that I had imagined maybe finishing one of those for this challenge. But then I was given a book to read and review by another BookCrosser and ..."

Yay, BookCrossing!

I decided to count any book that had ever been specifically assigned for me to read. I read all of my school assignments, so this mostly meant book clubs.
Piranesi for LHR Society
The Survivors for Traps & Trench Coats
The Ladies of the Secret Circus for High Tea Book Club
The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Consciousness for Stranger Than Fiction
From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death for Fucked-Up Book Club
The Bone Field for Sisters in Crime-Colorado
The Conjure-Man Dies for Book Snobs
The Candle and the Flame from the Audiobook SYNC lists
Malibu Rising for Old Town Library's Summer Book Club
What Moves the Dead for Literally Dead Book Club

[Jacqie]

Wow, Stina, that is a LOT of book clubs!

I had a dry month of books, nothing really grabbed me. I'll use Color Scheme for this prompt. I used this book for a reading challenge involving different book cover colors and also for a challenge with the prompt "a subject you know nothing about". I know pretty much nothing about color theory and this book did not change that.