Rating: 
Summary: "God Protects Drunks and Fools"
Review: On the surface, Timothy Treadwell's book "Among Grizzlies" is a book about one of my favorite subjects: bears. This is why I read the book from start to finish. But it isn't long after one begins the book before one realizes that just beneath the surface this is actually a book about a man with a death wish and all the talk about bears (which can make for an adequate "bear read", mind you) is really a series of descriptions of this sad individual's numerous attempts to force a horrible death upon himself. Treadwell begins his book by describing his being shot at by drug dealers and his having taken an overdose of illegal narcotics that only CPR and an Emergency Room could bring him back from. From the beginning to the end of the book he talks about his addiction to and abuse of alcohol. When he reaches the point of the book at which he sets out to live among Alaska's wild Grizzly Bears and describes the many times that he was charged by irate Grizzlies for having come within ridiculously close proximity to these bears in his attempts to kiss them on the nose, etc, it is clear that his interest in bears is simply a continuation of a long progression of suicide attempts disguised as "experimentation". At the end of the book he tells us that of all the bears he came to know during his stays in the Alaskan wilderness, the one he "loved the most" was the one bear that had tried most seriously to kill him. This book is by no means scientific. In fact, I have never read a book written by a person who had spent so much time in the wilderness only to come away from it with so little understanding of it. At times Treadwell admits to being a very incapable wilderness explorer and he tells his readers of such instances as the first time night fell upon him while he was alone in the wilderness. In that instance his problem was that once it had become dark he realized that he had never so much as unrolled the tent he had brought to live in and so he would be totally unable to set it up in the darkness. But in another bizarre description of his being totally surrounded by nature's bounty, watching huge Grizzly Bears procuring so many clams that they were fattening for winter as he watched, Treadwell worries that he will starve to death because he had eaten his last Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich and finished off his last can of Tuna Fish and the plane that was scheduled to bring him more food had not arrived on the anticipated day! Unfortunately, he wasn't kidding. This would be a harmless, albeit a bit ridiculous, book were it not for the fact that Treadwell adopts a superior, "Holier Than Thou" attitude toward hunters and other wilderness explorers. He talks about legal hunters and poachers as if they were one and the same and he blames licenced sportsmen for the decline of America's Grizzly population. This is untrue. He also blames sight seers in the Alaskan wilderness for driving bears to inadequate habitats and refers to these tourists as "these people", completely ignoring the fact that he is not only one of "these people" but also by far the most intrusive among them. Bears are good. People are bad. Treadwell is good because Treadwell is a bear. This is Treadwell's strange, immature philosophy. In his epilogue Treadwell reminds his readers that he never intended his book to have the effect upon others that Hemingway's description of the running of the bulls had. I wouldn't worry about that, Tim. I guess it's fairly obvious that as much as I enjoy reading about bears, I had an adverse reaction to the thought of Timothy Treadwell roaming among them and fancying himself one of them. There is a great deal of bear discussion in this book and many of his descriptions of bear behavior and the reaction of bears to Treadwell's behavior are not devoid of value for bear enthusiasts. For that, one might want to read this book. I might even recommend it. My hope is that when Treadwell finally accomplishes his real goal, the bears he lives among will not acquire a taste for human flesh as a result of his having forced the meal upon them.
Rating: 
Summary: An amazing story
Review: "Among Grizzlies" is a inspiring book. A man, both cowardly and brave, goes to live with the great grizzly bears of Alaska, to fight his own personal demons, and to learn about the most feared animal on earth. He learns to love and respect and eventually protect the glorious beasts that once roamed the entire North American continent. His tales of face to face meetings with the grizzlys are intense, and his tales of 'hunters' killing these noble animals for profit and fun is sickening. However, the most sickening experience was reading some of the reviews on Amazon.com. Some people try to diminsh the author's contributions to our understanding of these awesome animals. Timothy Treadwell truly is a man who deserves respect and praise for raising awareness to the plight of our wildlife. Especially now that there are some greedy, soulless humans (a.k.a. republicans) who want to open up oil drilling in Alaska. Read this book and learn.
Rating:
Summary: Delicious!
Review: Up until the moment they shot me, I thoroughly enjoyed Timothy Treadwell and his companion. I will say that he was a bit gamey, but hey, that's backpacking, right? In particular, I enjoyed his pleas for help and his small intestine. I believe I tasted just the faintest hint of vanilla.
Oh, wait, this is for BOOK reviews?
Rating:
Summary: Publicity Seeking Charlatan
Review: Tim Treadwell was a charlatan. He twisted his being allowed to get within almost touching distance of incredibly tolerant wild animals into some sort of "gift." Writing this book and filming his exploits he grew into a semi-celebrity as a "grizzly bear whisperer," which made his almost inevitable death by one of these animals into a farce. Treadwell is now the poster boy of the clueless environmental activist- a person so blinded by his own selfishness that he ignored the danger to not only himself, but also to the animals. It has been standard policy since the 60's that the best situation for both bears and humans is for both to give each other a wide berth. That means for humans to keep their distance and for bears to retain their natural fear of humans. It's the best situation for best species. Yet here came Tim Treadwell of Malibu, a recovering drug addict with no specialized training or education, who decided for his own selfish purposes that he had to get as close to the bears as possible. That he was able to survive for ten summers intruding on the personal space of sows with cubs and feeding bears speaks more of the tolerance of these animals than Treadwell's alleged "gift." Treadwell blithely ignored repeated warnings from park rangers and wildlife officials that he was modeling unsafe behavior and endangering not only himself but the bears and other people. He lived by a policy of what is good for the goose is not good enough for the gander. He would tell others not to do what he was doing, but then would film himself doing incredibly foolish stunts with some extremely dangerous predators. He justified his actions by saying he was protecting the bears from poachers- an absolutely absurd claim because Alaskan officials state the area that Treadwell practiced his alleged protection skills never had a poaching problem. Treadwell's death is a warning to touchy-feely, feel-gooders everywhere. Getting close to these impressive animals made Treadwell feel good about himself. It was this selfish impulse that led to the deaths of himself, his girlfriend, and two bears. He is the first person on record to be killed by bear in Katmai National Park and that is as big an indictment of Treadwell's activities as any. People and bears were able to co-exist in Katmai without much trouble until this self-proclaimed "expert" showed up, violated every rule of how to act in bear country, and then publicized his flaunting of common sense. A true charlatan if there ever was one!
Rating: 
Summary: What are the underpinnings behind this madness?
Review: Having recently read this book, I want to ascertain the unstated assumptions driving these people to their worldview (and in the case of Treadwell, his death). As best I can determine, the Grizzly People cult believe this: 1. If you believe that people, bears, ducks, etc., ought to love each other, love is guaranteed;
2. If you talk enough about peace, you'll get it;
3. There are no such things as enemies (or predators), just friends we haven't apologized to. Notwithstanding the tragedy of his death, I am heartened that darwinian effects invariably removed Treadwell's genes from the pool.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining but how much of it is real??
Review: Actually, against my better taste, I enjoyed reading this book. However, I thought Threadwell was smoking something funny as his behavior seem to be so dangerous. The author was mauled and eaten by a bear in Alaska last October 2003 and the book seem to show why. He seem to treat bears like people but he forgot that like people, bears can go good, indifferent or bad. Ironically, just like its very dangerous for bears to lose their fear of humans, its equally dangerous for a man to lose his fear of the bear. The book clearly shows that Threadwell slowly overcoming his fear of bears (although he remains wary) and actually feeling comfortable around them as the pages turned. That can be considered as a bad move, arrogant and presumptuous. Threadwell also seem to mistaken bears' tolerance for him as some sort of a mystic connection. He began to treat these bears as if they were his personal wild pets, giving them names and intruding into their space. Such behavior only works while the bears were amazingly tolerant of Threadwell's presence. Although he had many close calls, it wasn't enough to bring caution into his mind. Despite of his obvious love of bears and fear that one of them might get kill because of him, Threadwell didn't seem to mind that he put himself in harm's way. Although Threadwell stated that he don't mind being bear fodder, he obviously fought back hard if the newspaper accounts were correct when he was about to become the next afternoon snack. The book also seem to revealed Threadwell's obession with proachers and all that although Threadwell don't go into any kind of details. I was left with an impression that maybe the author took some liberties while writing this book.
Rating:
Summary: A dangerous and misguided book
Review: Treadwell represents pretty much what all Alaskans hate about the "environmental movement." He was from outside, Malibu no less! He was arrogant. He openly derided Alaskans with far, far more experience dealing with the great bears than he had. He came here only for the warm season, and promptly fled at first snow fall. He accused Alaskans of being poachers, though he never provided any evidence to back up his claims. He even claimed Alaskans were trying to kill him, again with no supporting evidence. These allegations were either the product of a deranged mind or the cold efforts of a con artists to raise money from naive audiences in the lower 48. His actions led directly to the deaths of two bears, killed in self-defense by rangers coming to collect his remains. Both bears charged the rangers. Put this in perspective. Even big brown bears (they were NOT repeat NOT "grizzly bears") will typically run off a kill when humans come. They are terrified of us. Something had conditioned these bears to lose their fear of humans. That something was Treadwell himself, and his constant efforts to make the brownies feel he was no threat. As a result those bears died. So far from saving "his" bears, Treadwell ensured that two would be killed. Now the entire area must be sealed off since the current generation of bears there no longer fear humans.
Rating:
Summary: Not innocent, and not a girl, but a WOMAN physician ass't
Review: Timothy Treadwell got his wish. Sad, but true. And his adventure was shared by a 37 year old WOMAN, not an innocent girl, who made her choice to be there. It is too bad that such misguided "Eco-nuts" end up damaging the very bears that they allegedly wanted to "protect" from the nasty hunters. Ending up as bear scat (feces) is not an admirable goal, and one has to question both the sanity and motivation of this "eco-maniac" who displayed more ego than eco.
Rating:
Summary: I loved this book!
Review: You can debate whether or not the author should have been where he was, doing what he did, especially since he was killed doing it. The reality is, this is an entertaining book. I enjoyed his stories of face to face encounters with animals that I am personally terrified of. I appreciated his support of grizzly bears and their environment and wildlife as a whole. For the brief time that it took to read this engaging book, I could not put it down. I recommend this book to anyone interested in wildlife and animals or anyone interested in a story of a human who overcomes his troubles to do the things he loves to do.
Rating:
Summary: An amazing story
Review: "Among Grizzlies" is a inspiring book. A man, both cowardly and brave, goes to live with the great grizzly bears of Alaska, to fight his own personal demons, and to learn about the most feared animal on earth. He learns to love and respect and eventually protect the glorious beasts that once roamed the entire North American continent. His tales of face to face meetings with the grizzlys are intense, and his tales of 'hunters' killing these noble animals for profit and fun is sickening. However, the most sickening experience was reading some of the reviews on Amazon.com. Some people try to diminsh the author's contributions to our understanding of these awesome animals. Timothy Treadwell truly is a man who deserves respect and praise for raising awareness to the plight of our wildlife. Especially now that there are some greedy, soulless humans (a.k.a. republicans) who want to open up oil drilling in Alaska. Read this book and learn.
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