The Boilerplate Rhino: Nature in the Eye of the Beholder

Rating:
Summary: Good stuff!
Review: Quammen has compiled a thoughtful and entertaining collection of his essays for THE BOILERPLATE RHINO. You don't need to be a nature buff or of a scientific mind to enjoy what he's written. This was a bit of an impulse buy due to a bargain price, but I was pleasantly surprised. I look forward to reading more of Quammen's work!

Rating:
Summary: The Rhino Treads Lightly
Review: Quammen is a delight to read. His writing is lively, clear, workmanlike (in the very best sense of the word), with that spring in the literary step that a writer has or doesn't have, but has to be born with -- and I speak both as a fellow writer and as a professional editor. There is no in-between: Quammen is a real writer. His work is always infused with delight and usually makes me laugh out loud at least once per essay. His books teach without being obnoxiously didactic. These essays are full of wonder, information, and delight, and they are a pleasure to read -- and it doesn't get better than that!

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful nature writing
Review: Reading Quammen is like meeting a fascinating fellow in a bar who is really smart, tells great stories and is fun to listen to. Quammen's area of storytelling is the world of nature, from ants to rhinos. Some nature books are heavy slogging (EOWilson's "Consilience" comes immediately to mind) but Quammen writes page-turners. The chapters in the book appeared earlier as columns in Outside magazine.

Rating:
Summary: RIDE A RHINO!
Review: Reading the fascinating twenty-six essays that make-up this book is the closest I have come to riding a rhino. David Quammen's fantasies are exhilarating; and he knows how to pen them down.
The lives of these essays revolved around those of octopus, beetles, and bats: before assuming a cosmic dimension.
This book is a fine collection of fictions, which will please most fantasy lovers.
However, some parts of it appeared more or less shallow. Still, it's worth the time that any willing reader would like to invest on it.

Rating:
Summary: Dave Quammen does it again!
Review: There's really little wonder why Quammen is one of the greatest writers of the natural world. He brings out his experiences, and the science of things so eloquently and entertainingly. You'll finish The Boilerplate Rhino - which is really a collection of 25 of his best column articles from Outside magazine - in a few sittings .
Quammen's nose for news keeps him on his toes in discovering the reality of the natural world. He won't rest till he's seen or investigated or read up tremendously (Quammen is immensely well read) on a subject he gets a little keen on. THAT is what keeps the reader hooked onto his writings, experiencing an involvement, thereby taking yet another step into the beautiful world we still know so little about.
You will enjoy The Boilerplate Rhino as Quammen takes you on his journeys into places as far out as the Sundas to as intimate as your very own backyard.