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Wild
Thoughts from Wild Places
by David Quammen
Amazon.com Review
 Besides
bringing together a couple decades' worth of literate, eloquent forays into the natural
world, this collection of essays from the prize-winning author of The Song of the Dodo is both a wake-up call and a
testimonial. Mostly gathered from magazine articles--in particular, from the author's 15
years of "Natural Acts," a column in Outside magazine--Quammen reminds
us of the many less-quantifiable virtues of the wild that often get squashed in the path
of so-called progress. Beginning with the Rocky Mountain trout that, as a young man, would
alter his course through life, and meandering through a variety of travels and experiences
around the globe, he touches on issues of wildlife conservation, island biogeography (the
subject of his award-winning Song of the Dodo),
and outdoor recreation. But there are surprises. Quammen learns about mountain lions by
looking over the shoulder of a Montana bow hunter, and he delights in the athletic grace
of telemark skiing and white-water rodeo. Still, the rallying cry is made clear in the
introduction's first paragraph: "Wild places, in the ordinary sense of that phrase,
are in preciously short supply on planet Earth at the end of the twentieth century." --Copyright © Amazon.com, Inc.
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