The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating

I appreciated this book’s up-close examination and meditation on snails. Bailey, bedridden by an unknown illness, discovers purpose in her own disrupted life by tending to a wild snail that arrives in a pot of violets.

I love watching snails and slugs and have been curious how they eat after I watched one chomp the petals of a buttercup and another gorge itself in doggie doo. One of the first things Bailey notices about the snail is a square-shaped snail bite on paper. I wanted to know more! Snails have teeth? Why was the hole square shaped?

Who knew a book about a snail and the ill woman it was keeping company could turn out to be a great read? While an illness keeps her bedridden, Bailey watches a snail that a friend has brought to her in a flower pot. As a result, she discovers a sense of wonder observing this mysterious creature and a greater sense of her own place in the world. This is a remarkable book. I learned a lot about snails, and I didn't even know that I would be interested in learning about snails. But what really kept me reading is… show more.

Before reading this book, I thought the most inclusive version of the slow travel principle of micro-travel and mindfulness was going outside and experiencing the weather. But because of a mysterious illness that left her bedridden, Bailey could not go outside nor look out the window. Yet, she wrote about the habits and hijinks of a tiny snail a friend brought her in a pot of violets.

I loved that Bailey found snail “bites” on paper and then explained how a snail’s mouth works and why the hole in the paper was square-shaped. The snail becomes Bailey’s connection to the… show more.

Bailey’s book is about a friendship (one-sided perhaps) between a woman and a snail. She describes her growing affection for a woodland snail who is trapped inside with her during a long illness. Although Bailey isn’t offering commentary on pet-keeping, her book suggests a compelling alternative to loving animals—especially creatures we bring in from the wild—by making them into our pets. She shows us how to encounter another creature with curiosity, wonder, and respect.

When this author is confined to her bed for a year, she passes the time watching and noting the small doings of a Neohelix albolabris—a common forest snail. Bailey's powers of observation are a mix of poetry and science that slowed my heart down to a comfortable pace I will call: Here I Might Manage to Listen to the Mysteries of Existence, that is, a very healing pace of listening and being.

As soon as it was published, The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating became a classic. No one had ever written about the lowly snail with such tenderness and respect. Stricken by a mysterious illness and confined to her bed, Elisabeth Tova Bailey is gifted with a woodland violet. Inside the pot, Bailey discovers a snail, which she begins to study minute by minute. What she learns about her guest--how it moves, eats, sleeps, and reproduces--will forever change your perspective on this common mollusk. Her writing is gorgeous and addictive, transporting us to a miniature world that mirrors our own… show more.