Becoming Animal
Book description
David Abram’s first book, The Spell of the Sensuous has become a classic of environmental literature. Now he returns with a startling exploration of our human entanglement with the rest of nature.
As the climate veers toward catastrophe, the innumerable losses cascading through the biosphere make vividly evident the need…
Why read it?
2 authors picked Becoming Animal as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Becoming Animal changed the way I look at my habitat. I hope it does the same for you. In his philosophical musings, David Abram contemplates why nature is something we look at, not something we are. He suggests our calloused coldness and ordered separation from other species allows us to subdue the wild-ness, but it comes with a numbing feeling of solitude. I too believe our disconnect with natural systems fuels many human ailments (physical and psychological). I love Abram’s suggestion that we change the spelling of Earth to Eairth to acknowledge that we, and the air we breathe, are…
From Sarah's list on improving your connection with nature.
Abram’s 1997 book, The Spell of the Sensuous, is (in my humble opinion) one of the most important works in American environmental ethics. Abram helps us understand how we have become so disconnected from nature. His second book, Becoming Animal, tries to help us overcome this disconnection through enlivening our sensory, our sensual experience of the world. I am still learning how to distinguish the sound of wind passing through a pine from the sound of wind passing through a spruce.
From Jessica's list on thinking differently on human-animal relationships.
If you love Becoming Animal...
I Am Taurus
The constellation we know as Taurus goes all the way back to cave paintings of aurochs at Lascaux. This book traces the story of the bull in the sky, a journey through the history of what has become known as the sacred bull.
Each of the sections is written from…
Want books like Becoming Animal?
Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Becoming Animal.
Share your top 3 reads of 2024!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
1,747
readers submitted
so far, will you?
📚 If you like Becoming Animal, you might also like...
What Walks This Way
Nature writer Sharman Apt Russell tells stories of her experiences tracking wildlife—mostly mammals, from mountain lions to pocket mice—near her home in New Mexico, with lessons that hold true across North America. She guides readers through the basics of identifying tracks and signs, revealing a landscape filled with the marks…
Marriage and Fatherhood in the Nazi SS
When I was writing this book, several of my friends jokingly called it the Nazi baby book, with one insisting it would make a great title. Nazi Babies – admittedly, that is a catchy title, but that’s not exactly what my book is about. SS babies would be slightly more…
