Customer Reviews

Field Notes on Science & Nature

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

For every one of us who has ever conducted field research or just walked into the forest, through the desert, or along the beach, this book is a delight and a treasure. A combination of instruction and inspiration, it makes the practice of keeping field notes feel like one of the most worthwhile arts, a manner of interacting as fully as possible with what we discover and documenting it for ourselves and others to profit from our experience. While there are many suggestions, ideas and approaches in the different chapters, the overall effect for me was that of being given permission to experiment with field notes, to hybridize different techniques, to adopt whatever method might best serve my own style of being in direct contact with the natural world. Even if I never intended to put into practice the methods that are described, I would find the examples of work by others utterly fascinating, an intriguing glimpse into the process of being the keenest observer of our surroundings. I hope this book will reach the hands of many explorers of all ages who will take it upon themselves to leave for future generations stacks of beautiful and insightful field notebooks that can illuminate more dimensions of the intricate world around us.

This book is a total delight! A colleague suggested it to me & as soon as i got my copy I KNEW I had to get extras for deserving students. this is a lovely mixture of Natural History observation and art covering an impressive range of people, places and periods. The book is jam-packed with ideas and suggestione for better observations, better note-taking, eyes for detail, inspiring accounts, often droll commentary.... The artwork and sample pages are very nicely reproduced, and many of the essays give priceless insights into key figures in the devlopment of Ecology (check out for instance the GREAT essay on Grinnell & the "Grinnell System" of note-taking... If this book doesn't make you twitchy for your next field season, or wax nostalgic for your last, well, you are probably pretty close to dead :-) Honestly, a Must Have at so many levels. get one for your self & then get copies for the budding field biologists in your lives!

As an amateur naturalist struggling to find ways to record my observations of nature in a coherent way, this book was a wonderful mixture of inspiring examples and practical advice. Highly recommended!

I ordered this book after reading a review of it that appeared recently in Nature (16 june 2011) and literally devoured it. It is mostly written by (and for) biologists and naturalists but as an Earth scientist I do not feel far away from them. The book is a collection of essays by different authors and, understandably, there is a wide variety of styles, opinions and approaches to field notes that is worth reading even if one does not agree with everyone. The essays show clearly that field notebooks can be anything you like or need and that how your notebook will look like and what it will mean for you will depend on your objectives and even personality. As field notebooks have always been an essential part of my work I always wondered why so little had been written and published on the subject. This book definitely fills a gap and I enjoyed a lot reading it. Warmly recommended!

If you keep any type of journal, you'll enjoy this book. While it is focused on field research, it does cover, 'How to become a good observer of life.' These concepts apply themselves to many types of journaling. The many sample pages and illustrations are well selected. The depth and range of this book is wonderful, along with clear writing that keeps complex topics accessible. I would use this text for any class that requires, `Learning how to See the world.'

I bought the KINDLE version of this book and was very disappointed there are NO IMAGES or ILLUSTRATIONS included. In place of each illustration the text reads "refer to print edition of book". Why even offer the Kindle version if the most essential parts of the book, the illustrations, aren't included!!

We got this book because my husband needed it for a class. He loves it. And the book has all these beautiful illustrations in it.

I heard the author speak about this book on NPR, and ordered it. The premise was irresistible. The delivery, however, was a big disappointment. The book is essentially in textbook format and not nearly as interesting as I had hoped. Had I thumbed through this book before purchase, I would not have made the purchase.