I would like to read one book about modern birds...just one...where conservation is not a looming, overzealous theme. I own three books about modern birds, mostly for the sake of having reference photos, and all three of them beat the reader over the head with musings on how endangered, threatened, or otherwise in trouble these birds are. And what if the book discusses birds that are not threatened? Then it talks about potential threats to its habitat. You know, things to watch out for. It reads something like this:
"The Bohemian Waxwing is stupidly common and successful. However, in the future, human development might someday destroy its habitat. SAVE THE BIRDS."
Goddamnit, I know that countless animal species are threatened, endangered, etc., but when I'm reading a book for information, I don't need that fact hammered into my brain. It's not that I don't support bird conservation, because I do. But if I'm reading what's supposed to be an informative book about a particular animal, it's because I'm reading the book for information about that particular animal. I don't need to read two paragraphs about how threatened it is.
That is all.
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3 comments:
I can only imagine what a book on polar bears would be like...
Heh-heh.
The Bohemian Waxwings are much more likely to drink themselves to extinction than anything else, seeing as how humans like putting up fruit-bearing trees and such.
I totally agree ... it's like 'yeah, I understand this is an important message ... but I GOT IT ALREADY'
it's getting this way w/ any program about the Arctic ... tell me about the fascinating and complex dynamics of glaciers, how they work ... not just footage of calving with a crappy fade into a time-lapse image of a busy freeway
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