[Subdue] An Immense World, by Ed Yong, *must read*

[NancyJ]

An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong blew my mind a little bit. I honestly feel like my whole world view expanded. I might even call it a *must read* book, even if you just read a little. Each chapter focuses on a different sense, such as hearing or touch. He covers much more than the 5 senses that we know so well. It was fascinating to hear all the examples of what different animals can do. They were too many examples to try to remember, but they left me with a great sense of wonder and amazement about the natural world. I had no idea that scallops have many bright blue eyes, and that a spider (except for jumping spiders) cannot see or track me, but it can sense the vibrations that I leave in the air. The chapters on touch, color, and magnetic fields were particularly interesting to me. The chapter on pain was fascinating but disturbing. (How can a scientist study pain without inflicting it?)

Note: I encourage you to pick up a copy of the print book even if you don’t want to read the whole thing. You can get something interesting from the book even if you just read a little bit.* The chapters are nicely labeled, and you can pick a few that interest you the most. And there are pictures. I listened to the entire audio before I remembered that I had a copy of the book. I couldn’t envision the Star-Nosed Mole when listening to the audio, so the picture was really surprising. (Even though it made me queasy to look at it.). Otherwise I’m glad I listened to the audio. I didn’t catch everything, but the playback kept me going. My mind wandered more in the middle chapters, which seemed more advanced and detailed, but I got the basics. He slows down again near the end and I liked the material about light and sound pollution.

*The most important concept I learned was “umvelt,” right in the introduction. I’m surprised I never heard it before. We naturally have a self-centered view of the world based on the limits of our perceptions. Each animal has a different umvelt, or environment that they can sense. Humans have made many faulty assumptions about other animals throughout time, and there are still many animal skills that we don't understand. Now that I’ve read all the examples, it feels like an obvious and basic idea, but it wasn’t at first. I feel like my world view just expanded. It’s like when I learned about “ethnocentrism” in relation to human cultures. Knowing the term feels like something just clicked in my brain. I guess I experienced a paradigm shift. I’ve been reading a lot about nature and ecology in the last few years, so I guess I was half-way there. Now I think I’ll be more aware when I fall into the old way of thinking about animals and plants.

[Meli]

I have a copy of this and I am so excited to read it.
Your review has me double excited!
This kinda reminds me of The Selfish Gene. It is also full of fascinating facts about evolution and uses animals as examples throughout. I would warn that Dawkins is an unabashed athiest and even though this book is evolutionary biology it obviously provides the foundation of his beliefs. I can't recall how much that comes through in this book, but just a heads up in case that could be offensive to some readers.

Glad you loved this book so much and I look forward to reading it!

[Booknblues]

I have a copy of this book and keep waiting for a time to read. Perhaps I should take your suggestion and just read a bit at a time.

[NancyJ]

Meli wrote: "I have a copy of this and I am so excited to read it.
Your review has me double excited!
This kinda reminds me of The Selfish Gene. It is also full of fascinating facts about evoluti..."

I hope you like it too. I think I’ve had Dawkins’ books on my TBR but never tried one. Evolutionary biology is very interesting, but I might not see it the way he does. I’m not very religious, but I often get a spiritual sense of awe when I think about all the complexities of nature.

[NancyJ]

Booknblues wrote: "I have a copy of this book and keep waiting for a time to read. Perhaps I should take your suggestion and just read a bit at a time."

Sure, if you own it, you don’t have to think about due dates, so you can take your time. I hope you like it.