Books I am Lovin'

I didn't think my book choices would lead me on to something important. Recently, I have been reading a string of natural history books and neither one or the other affected how I chose them from the magnificent collection of offerings in the library. I just chose them out of pure interesting quality. Later on after starting on the third book, I realized that their topics are related. I first began reading The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time by Jonathan Weiner which wonderfully narrated the adventures of Biologists Peter and Rosemary Grant in the island of Daphne Major, one of the islands of the famous (and rightly so) Galapagos archipelago. The book won the Pulitzer Prize for its sheer brilliance of making a jargon-filled and complex technical topic into a relatively easy read for the masses. But it's not just its transcendence to the masses that makes it so special, but the effort behind the chronicles and journals of this writer on the research outputs of the two scientists magnifying what used to be issues only talked about in the small circle of the science world - that makes it all the more a book even the most rigid scientist will enjoy reading. Peter and Rosemary's research centers on the dynamic process of evolution of the Galapagos finches. Their evolution, unlike most, is observable in that it happens in every few years with the right amount of external pressure and what not. Although this isn't truly the evolution one might think - like the complete change of one species to another, it is rather a snip of that bigger event, a unique natural phenomenon that rarely can be seen. I now have new idols to look up to. The way both Peter and Rosemary analyzed every minute detail - to a fraction of a millimeter change in the depth of a finches beak - is inspiring.I have now ordered my own from Amazon. It is that good that I need one for future referencing. 

The book I read after that was Lonesome George: The Life and Loves of a Conservation Icon by Henry Nicholls. Lonesome George is a famous giant turtle if you know your basic biology and conservation. The book centers on the discovery of the last remaining turtle of its kind from the island of Pinta in the Galapagos. George is the only remaining specimen of his kind, and the efforts of many scientists trying to fruitlessly find another of his kind and their non-stop brainstorming on how to save his species have been highlighted. There have been those who endlessly trekked back again and again to the island of Pinta just to make sure if there still are more turtles left but all to no avail. There have been those talking about cloning lonesome George, or collecting his sperm and cryogenically store it until they find a suitable, genetically- close female for him to sire. Lonesome George is still in the Galapagos, visited by thousands of tourists every year who feel for his loneliness and plight. Working on acquiring one yet again for my own library.

I am currently reading The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction by David Quammen. Not far from the beginning and just like the previous books I've read, I'm hooked. I'm such a sucker for well-written nature/natural history books. As little as I've gone through with this book as of current, I again noticed that hint of Galapagos touch. Even from the complete title, it talks about island biogeography. And it seems to me that this particularly new field is haunting me. Having lived on two completely different island worlds, I have to say that I have the backings of one born to a wild goose and growing up into a wild goose. This is for me, and the formidable and familiar topic of conservation is just one pillow to my full on cushioned room.

And just for perks, every time I read something about the Philippines, be it the mistake of classifying too early the Cebu flowerpecker as extinct even without due research or just reading about how Alfred Russel Wallace contemplated  on going to the Philippines instead of the Malay archipelago on his undeservedly less famous voyage after his South American disaster-slash-adventure, it makes me happy that we are part of this whole game of life and research. I am not aiming for my name to be one up there on every journal conceivable or the topic of books, but just a name worthy of a cause, a glance, and an opinion. I wish..lol