The Song of the Dodo

I've read many books by David Quammen, but somehow I had missed The Song of the Dodo until this year. Pity I didn't get to it sooner, because it's his best. It is nominally about island biogeography, but it covers so much more, like biodiversity and conservation. It's also an amazing travelogue, one of the best history of science books I have read, and wonderfully written. The Song of the Dodo is nonfiction at its best.

A tour-de-force of science writing and arguably the best book about ecology and evolution ever written. Quammen’s book covers similar ground to Last Chance to See conceptually, and sometimes literally as several of the same locales are visited. But the similarities end there. As an undergraduate, it opened my eyes to the importance of ecological research and gave me a new appreciation for the contributions to science of the much-maligned Alfred Russell Wallace.

This book is unique in that, despite my enthusiasm for it, I have seldom found the need to re-read it because so much of the content—… show more.

This is simply one of the best books on natural history ever written, and I read it in two sittings. The title is subtlety deceptive: instead of the straightforward story of the dodo's extinction, this explores the interrelationship of evolution, biogeography, and humanity across time and space.

The book covers the American West, Amazonia, and New Guinea, documenting and explaining the relationship between ecological fragmentation and the natural world. From pygmy elephants to marsupial carnivores to rats, evolution has responded to geography in marvelous yet scientifically understandable ways since the appearance of life.

If you want to understand how the… show more.

Not many can manage the task of mastering a complicated subject and turn it into life—which means storytelling—as good as David Quammen. In his books he writes long passages on scientific discourses that sometimes come close to textbooks. But I enjoy reading them, because I learn so much and because he alternates these sections with (often very funny) stories. Stories of people that shape their scientific field, which reads like a good novel. Like in “The song of the Dodo”—a portrait of the scientific field of “Island Biogeography,” which explains why animal and plant species are where they are and… show more.

There are many books on the subject of conservation and the plight that besets the planet. Most are well-written, well-intentioned, and outline the story. But many cover the same well-trodden path and are full of platitudes and an unrealistic self-righteousness. This one is very different. It tells its story in an original way and offers an approach that is particularly disturbing; it underlines problems that many conservationists simply skirt around.

The first thing to say is that the book is not really about the Dodo at all; the title is just an intriguing and engaging heading! And in any case,… show more.