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The Bedside Book of Birds: An Avian Miscellany - Hardcover

 
9780385514835: The Bedside Book of Birds: An Avian Miscellany
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In this stunning assemblage of words and images, novelist and avid birdwatcher Graeme Gibson has crafted an extraordinary tribute to the venerable relationship between humans and birds.
Birds have ever been the symbols of our highest aspirations. As divine messengers, symbols of our yearning for the heavens, or avatars of glorious song and colour, they have stirred our imaginations from the moment we first looked into the sky. Whether as the Christian dove, or Quetzalcoatl the Aztec Plumed Serpent or in Plato s vision of the human soul growing wings and feathers, religion and philosophy have looked to birds as representatives of our better selves that part of us not bound to the earth.
With the passion of a birdwatcher and hoarder of words, Gibson has spent fifteen years collecting the literary and artistic forms our affinity for birds has taken over the centuries. Birds appear again and again in mythology and folk tales, and in literature by writers as diverse as Ovid, Thomas Hardy, Kafka, Thoreau and T.S. Eliot. They ve been omens, allegories, disguises and guides; they ve been worshipped, eaten, feared and loved. Nor does Gibson forget the fascination they hold for science, as the Galapagos finches did for Darwin. Birds figure charmingly and tellingly in the work of such nature writers as Gilbert White, Peter Matthiessen, Farley Mowat and Barry Lopez.
Gorgeously illustrated, woven from centuries of human response to the delights of the feathered tribes, "The Bedside" "Book of Birds "is for anyone who is aware of birds, and for everyone who is intrigued by the artistic forms that humanity has created to represent its soul.
From "The Bedside Book of Birds
"Stevenson remembered the story of a monk who had been distracted from his copy-work by the song of a bird. He went into the garden to listen more closely, and when he returned, after what he thought were only a few minutes, he discovered that a century had gone by, that his fellow monks were dead and his ink had turned to dust. The song of the bird had given him a taste of Paradise, where an instant is as a hundred years of earthly time. Was the same true of time in hell, Stevenson asked himself.
Alberto Manguel"

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Product Description:
[ Bedside Book of Birds: An Avian Miscellany By ( Author ) Oct-2005 Hardcover
Review:
A "Globe and Mail Best" Book of the Year
"The most compulsively readable of a clutch of bird-themed books out this autumn. Taking in everything from classic nature-writing to poetry via folklore and Mayan creation myths, The Bedside Book Of Birds is by no means for 'twitchers' only."
--"Daily Mail (London)
"The perfect book for armchair ornithologists with an eye for words as well as feathers."
--"The Daily Telegraph (London)
"A wonderful collection of poetry and prose, folk tales and myths, which pay tribute to our feathered friend. . . . A perfect Christmas present, even for non-anoraks."
--"Mail on Sunday (UK)
"Anyone who has watched birds, studied them, given them the least attention, will find this a treat. It is a compilation of writings that celebrate themany ways people have engaged with birds - made companions of them, mythologised them, hunted and eaten them. There's an account of a mocking thrush drinking from Charles Darwin's hand on the voyage of the Beagle, and of a woman in Ohio who incubated 50 hens' eggs by laying them alongside the body of her dying, fevered husband. This book is well worth buying for the illustrations alone."
--"New Scientist
"The beauty of the writing and the illustrations contained in The Bedside Book of Birds is matched by the beauty of the physical book itself. Great pains have been taken by the author and the publisher to make this book a work of art, and they have succeeded marvellously."
--"The Globe and Mail
"The most spectacular bird book of the year."
--"The Globe and Mail
""An astoundingly beautiful book . . . featur[ing] some of the most sublime writings to be found on the subject."
--"TheGlobe and Mail
"The Bedside Book of Birds is a superb gift, a compulsive must-have, for the bird-lover, the storyteller, and the anthropologist in the family. As a collection it is exemplary of how fascination can re-order the world. Readers will be thinking feathered thoughts for days and they will be happier."
--"The Calgary Herald
"This book in the hand is worth two on the shelf."
--"The Calgary Herald
"A beautiful volume, sumptiously illustrated."
--"The Vancouver Sun
"[Gibson]'s book is a stunner. The wealth of imagery and the range of intelligence are grand, the kinds of relationships with birds he sets out nearly bewildering.... It's what I'll take to bed tonight to incite my dreams."
--Barry Lopez
"Gibson's own graceful and erudite essays tell of the pleasure, fear, confusion, or hope that birds inspire, and their imperiled place in nature."
--"The Oprah Magazine
"Gibson's preambles are as satisfying as the texts and accompanying illustrations."
--"Library Journal

A "Globe and Mail "Best" "Book of the Year
" The most compulsively readable of a clutch of bird-themed books out this autumn. Taking in everything from classic nature-writing to poetry via folklore and Mayan creation myths, The Bedside Book Of Birds is by no means for 'twitchers' only."
-- "Daily Mail" (London)
" The perfect book for armchair ornithologists with an eye for words as well as feathers."
-- "The Daily Telegraph" (London)
" A wonderful collection of poetry and prose, folk tales and myths, which pay tribute to our feathered friend. . . . A perfect Christmas present, even for non-anoraks."
-- "Mail on Sunday" (UK)
" Anyone who has watched birds, studied them, given them the least attention, will find this a treat. It is a compilation of writings that celebrate themany ways people have engaged with birds - made companions of them, mythologised them, hunted and eaten them. There's an account of a mocking thrush drinking from Charles Darwin's hand on the voyage of the Beagle, and of a woman in Ohio who incubated 50 hens' eggs by laying them alongside the body of her dying, fevered husband. This book is well worth buying for the illustrations alone."
-- "New Scientist"
" The beauty of the writing and the illustrations contained in The Bedside Book of Birds is matched by the beauty of the physical book itself. Great pains have been taken by the author and the publisher to make this book a work of art, and they have succeeded marvellously."
-- "The Globe and Mail"
" The most spectacular bird book of the year."
-- "The Globe and Mail"
"" "An astoundingly beautiful book . . . featur[ing] some of the most sublime writings to be found on the subject."
-- "The Globe and Mail"
" The Bedside Book of Birds is a superb gift, a compulsive must-have, for the bird-lover, the storyteller, and the anthropologist in the family. As a collection it is exemplary of how fascination can re-order the world. Readers will be thinking feathered thoughts for days and they will be happier."
-- "The Calgary Herald"
" This book in the hand is worth two on the shelf."
-- "The Calgary Herald"
" A beautiful volume, sumptiously illustrated."
-- "The Vancouver Sun"
" [Gibson]'s book is a stunner. The wealth of imagery and the range of intelligence are grand, the kinds of relationships with birds he sets out nearly bewildering... . It's what I'll take to bed tonight to incite my dreams."
-- Barry Lopez
" Gibson's own graceful and erudite essays tell of the pleasure, fear, confusion, or hope that birds inspire, and their imperiled place in nature."
-- "The Oprah Magazine"
" Gibson's preambles are as satisfying as the texts and accompanying illustrations."
-- "Library Journal"

A "Globe and Mail "Best""Book of the Year
"The most compulsively readable of a clutch of bird-themed books out this autumn. Taking in everything from classic nature-writing to poetry via folklore and Mayan creation myths, The Bedside Book Of Birds is by no means for 'twitchers' only."
--"Daily Mail" (London)
"The perfect book for armchair ornithologists with an eye for words as well as feathers."
--"The Daily Telegraph" (London)
"A wonderful collection of poetry and prose, folk tales and myths, which pay tribute to our feathered friend. . . . A perfect Christmas present, even for non-anoraks."
--"Mail on Sunday" (UK)
"Anyone who has watched birds, studied them, given them the least attention, will find this a treat. It is a compilation of writings that celebrate themany ways people have engaged with birds - made companions of them, mythologised them, hunted and eaten them. There's an account of a mocking thrush drinking from Charles Darwin's hand on the voyage of the Beagle, and of a woman in Ohio who incubated 50 hens' eggs by laying them alongside the body of her dying, fevered husband. This book is well worth buying for the illustrations alone."
--"New Scientist"
"The beauty of the writing and the illustrations contained in The Bedside Book of Birds is matched by the beauty of the physical book itself. Great pains have been taken by the author and the publisher to make this book a work of art, and they have succeeded marvellously."
--"The Globe and Mail"
"The most spectacular bird book of the year."
--"The Globe and Mail"
"""An astoundingly beautiful book . . . featur[ing] some of the most sublime writings to be found on the subject."
--"The Globe and Mail"
"The Bedside Book of Birds is a superb gift, a compulsive must-have, for the bird-lover, the storyteller, and the anthropologist in the family. As a collection it is exemplary of how fascination can re-order the world. Readers will be thinking feathered thoughts for days and they will be happier."
--"The Calgary Herald"
"This book in the hand is worth two on the shelf."
--"The Calgary Herald"
"A beautiful volume, sumptiously illustrated."
--"The Vancouver Sun"
"[Gibson]'s book is a stunner. The wealth of imagery and the range of intelligence are grand, the kinds of relationships with birds he sets out nearly bewildering.... It's what I'll take to bed tonight to incite my dreams."
--Barry Lopez
"Gibson's own graceful and erudite essays tell of the pleasure, fear, confusion, or hope that birds inspire, and their imperiled place in nature."
--"The Oprah Magazine"
"Gibson's preambles are as satisfying as the texts and accompanying illustrations."
--"Library Journal"

A "Globe and Mail "Best" "Book of the Year
"The most compulsively readable of a clutch of bird-themed books out this autumn. Taking in everything from classic nature-writing to poetry via folklore and Mayan creation myths, The Bedside Book Of Birds is by no means for 'twitchers' only."
"Daily Mail" (London)
"The perfect book for armchair ornithologists with an eye for words as well as feathers."
"The Daily Telegraph" (London)
"A wonderful collection of poetry and prose, folk tales and myths, which pay tribute to our feathered friend. . . . A perfect Christmas present, even for non-anoraks."
"Mail on Sunday" (UK)
"Anyone who has watched birds, studied them, given them the least attention, will find this a treat. It is a compilation of writings that celebrate themany ways people have engaged with birds - made companions of them, mythologised them, hunted and eaten them. There's an account of a mocking thrush drinking from Charles Darwin's hand on the voyage of the Beagle, and of a woman in Ohio who incubated 50 hens' eggs by laying them alongside the body of her dying, fevered husband. This book is well worth buying for the illustrations alone."
"New Scientist"
"The beauty of the writing and the illustrations contained in The Bedside Book of Birds is matched by the beauty of the physical book itself. Great pains have been taken by the author and the publisher to make this book a work of art, and they have succeeded marvellously."
"The Globe and Mail"
"The most spectacular bird book of the year."
"The Globe and Mail"
"""An astoundingly beautiful book . . . featur[ing] some of the most sublime writings to be found on the subject."
"The Globe and Mail"
The Bedside Book of Birds is a superb gift, a compulsive must-have, for the bird-lover, the storyteller, and the anthropologist in the family. As a collection it is exemplary of how fascination can re-order the world. Readers will be thinking feathered thoughts for days and they will be happier.
"The Calgary Herald"
This book in the hand is worth two on the shelf.
"The Calgary Herald"
A beautiful volume, sumptiously illustrated.
"The Vancouver Sun"
[Gibson] s book is a stunner. The wealth of imagery and the range of intelligence are grand, the kinds of relationships with birds he sets out nearly bewildering . It s what I ll take to bed tonight to incite my dreams.
Barry Lopez
"Gibson's own graceful and erudite essays tell of the pleasure, fear, confusion, or hope that birds inspire, and their imperiled place in nature."
"The Oprah Magazine"
"Gibson's preambles are as satisfying as the texts and accompanying illustrations."
"Library Journal""

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherNan a Talese
  • Publication date2005
  • ISBN 10 0385514832
  • ISBN 13 9780385514835
  • BindingHardcover
  • Edition number1
  • Number of pages369
  • EditorGibson Graeme
  • Rating

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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. 1st Edition. Condition: NEW. 1st edition. Synopsis: In this stunning assemblage of words and images, novelist and avid birdwatcher Graeme Gibson has crafted an extraordinary tribute to the venerable relationship between humans and birds. Birds have ever been the symbols of our highest aspirations. As divine messengers, symbols of our yearning for the heavens, or avatars of glorious song and colour, they have stirred our imaginations from the moment we first looked into the sky. Whether as the Christian dove, or Quetzalcoatl the Aztec Plumed Serpent or in Plato s vision of the human soul growing wings and feathers, religion and philosophy have looked to birds as representatives of our better selves that part of us not bound to the earth. With the passion of a birdwatcher and hoarder of words, Gibson has spent fifteen years collecting the literary and artistic forms our affinity for birds has taken over the centuries. Birds appear again and again in mythology and folk tales, and in literature by writers as diverse as Ovid, Thomas Hardy, Kafka, Thoreau and T.S. Eliot. They ve been omens, allegories, disguises and guides; they ve been worshipped, eaten, feared and loved. Nor does Gibson forget the fascination they hold for science, as the Galapagos finches did for Darwin. Birds figure charmingly and tellingly in the work of such nature writers as Gilbert White, Peter Matthiessen, Farley Mowat and Barry Lopez. Gorgeously illustrated, woven from centuries of human response to the delights of the feathered tribes, The Bedside Book of Birds is for anyone who is aware of birds, and for everyone who is intrigued by the artistic forms that humanity has created to represent its soul. From The Bedside Book of Birds ~ Stevenson remembered the story of a monk who had been distracted from his copy-work by the song of a bird. He went into the garden to listen more closely, and when he returned, after what he thought were only a few minutes, he discovered that a century had gone by, that his fellow monks were dead and his ink had turned to dust. The song of the bird had given him a taste of Paradise, where an instant is as a hundred years of earthly time. Was the same true of time in hell, Stevenson asked himself. Alberto Manguel From the Inside Flap: Birds have always created a sense of wonder and reverence in their earth-bound human observers. They are featured in creation myths of many different civilizations and appear with great frequency in fairy tales and fables the world over. Associated with creativity and freedom, with the spirit as opposed to the body, birds have been powerful symbols in religious traditions through the ages, from Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec plumed serpent, to the Christian dove. In all times and in every culture, they have inspired great works of literature and great works of art. Science, too, has looked toward the avian world for keys to understanding the nature of life on earth. THE BEDSIDE BOOK OF BIRDS, an unprecedented and enchanting treasure trove of paintings, drawings, poems, essays, and scientific observations, beautifully captures the interest and emotions birds evoke. The illustrations range from early cave paintings to Audubon's famous portraits to abstract works created in the twentieth century. There are writings by Shakespeare, Coleridge, Poe, Ted Hughes, and Jorge Luis Borges, among many others. Excerpts from famous scientific works, including Darwin's observations on the tameness of the Galapagos Islands' birds, are here, too, along with charming and valuable pieces by such popular nature writers as W. H. Hudson, Peter Matthiessen, Farley Mowat, and Barry Lopez. It is a book to ponder, to savor, and to learn from, for the winged soul in all of us. "About this title" may belong to another edition of this title. Seller Inventory # 340

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