Orr expands on some of the themes brought to the forefront in his last two books (Ecological Literacy and Earth in Mind). However, he highlights aspects critical to a sustaining culture that lie outside the boundaries of convential educational thought, and even outside the previous bounds of Orr's comprehensive vision of education.
He explains and argues for a continually expanded vision of 'education' again, and embeds this process in the larger processes of life; tirelessy showing that there are no boundaries between the two - and what this means for our place in the living world.
Chapters such as "Architecture as Pedagogy" represent some of his past work refined.
It is in the first half dozen chapters, however, that I feel he gets closest to the heart of the matter. In chapters such as "Slow Knowledge" and "Verbicide" he brings forth such elements as time, information, the speed at which we unite (or disjoint) them, and our relationship between such daily elements. I have been on a constant search for commentary on the implications of our relationship with time as it concerns sustainability. (Some of the best writing on it, that I've found is in The Sabbath by A.J Heschel and Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram). There is little written directly about this in the general literature, much of it not embedded in the concept of sustainability. The majority of it is also somewhat hidden in studies of religion, symbolism, and philosophy. Orr brings these relationships into the open and connects our perception and the design of our use of time directly to the ground. He never loses sight of the how such processes impact our prospects for a livable future.
He also contextualizes this relationship in the ever widening definition (largely thanks to Orr himself) of DESIGN - specifically ecological design.
These aspects are only part of this commentary however; other areas focus on the idea of wilderness, political economy, vocation, technology and human development.
David Orr's ability to connect such topics and contextualize them within the qualities of 'usefulness' is needed fundamentally.
He uncompromisingly subjects dominant current (and lesser-discussed, but possible) beliefs, paradigms, technologies and techniques, to the questions:
"What good is it, are they? How does it/do they influence us? How does it/do they inform our actions? Does this further our best intentions? How does this influence the prospects of life now and in the future?"

Never before has such scrutiny been so necessary, and I have found no more enlightening and pragmatic commentary than that offered by David Orr. This book should raise the bar for others in the many fields of sustainability to broaden, deepen and connect these concepts further, and soon.

This is a fantastic book on nature in North America. The pictures are large and glossy, and the pages are thick. Somehow they cover every animal in North America with a large picture, and some writing. It is written smoothly, however, and isn't like a catalogue. The information provided is not too much, nor too little. Just the perfect information. It is a large book. 14 inches in length, and 12 inches in width. So the pictures are huge, as is the text. A must have for nature lovers.

Imagine putting together a committee whose purpose it is to write a book about the oceans around us, their history, and how our lives are affected by them. We would probably need a geologist, a mythology expert, a historian, a marine biologist, a physicist, a Biblical Scholar and his counterpart, an expert on Darwin's theories, an astronomer, a marine engineer, a seer or two, and last but not least, an explorer. Amazingly enough, Peter Freuchen is a sort of one man committee who fulfills all of these requirements and incorporates all of these viewpoints into his BOOK OF THE SEVEN SEAS.

Freuchen devotes chapters to a wide range of ocean related subjects such as the geological history of the earth from the time it was a flaming ball until it became the planet we inhabit today, then on to all aspects of the ocean ranging from currents to tides to to winds to the animals and plants that call the oceans home, ad infinitumn. Other chapters address the history of seafaring from rafts and sailing ships to submarines, discussions about great voyages from the early explorers to the Kon Tiki, great sea battles, and mysteries, mythology and marvels of the sea.

One discussion that I found particularly interesting revolved around the idea of the "seven seas." In reality, in Freuchen's own words, "there are at least seven times seven seas (or alternately) only one." The term was first used by ancient mariners of the Mediterranean world who knew only seven large bodies of water which they thought were the seven seas of the world. They also thought that the world was mostly land, between 85 and 90% in fact.

With the coming of the age of exploration, it was discovered that the ancients had made a rather serious error. There was a lot more water than had been thought, and many new seas were discovered. Because of these explorations and discoveries, the term "seven seas" was dropped and largely forgotten for several centuries. Then, in 1896, along came Rudyard Kipling. In looking for a title for one of his works, he rediscovered the term and incorporated it into his title.

In Freuchen's terms, "(Kipling) was a great man, and a popular man, (so) the world had to make his words good." To do this the geographers figured out a way to divide the ocean into seven parts. Again, according to Freuchen, it isn't a very good way, but we can get along with it "even if few of us can remember what the seven are."

For information purposes, the ancient and modern lists follow:

Ancient: Mediterranean, Red, China, West African, East African, Indian Ocean, and Persian Gulf.

Modern: Arctic, Antarctic, North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, and Indian.

To summarize, and again quoting Freuchen: "The whole thing is a triumph of poetry over reality."

Freuchen's books have gone out of print and, in my estimation, that's a shame. All are worth reading both for the learning experience and for pure enjoyment.

This (surprisingly hefty) book is an excellent guide to a group of birds that many people have a rather dim view of, due to the sometimes massive flocks of feral rock pigeons (Columba livia, a.k.a. the "flying rat") that can now be found nearly the world over. The text is fairly dry, as is typical of all species accounts (and occasionally depressing, considering the large number of these species designated as being endangered), but the book is a treat for those who enjoy a celebration of the diversity of nature (even the dodos are covered). All of the living species and many major supspecies (and many recently extinct species) are illustrated in a series of excellent and beautiful color plates that will surprise and impress those whose experience with this order of birds does not extend beyond their nearest city park. These are NOT "flying rats". Great for the armchair bird-watcher.

This is a information-packed book. It's divided in nine chapters, but in fact you can see three parts:

The first part, with text and a lot of color pictures covers the basics of every subject you can imagine regarding sky watching: Binoculars, telescopes, cities and urban skies, software, history, every planet, binary stars, eclipses etc. etc. etc. always in just two or four pages.

The second part covers every constellation in the sky, in
alphabetical order (one constellation per page), with stars up to 6th (I guess) magnitude, highlighting the most interesting stars, nebulae etc., each one of the included features has a symbol (in the text below the map) so you can know at a glance if it is to be seen at naked eye, with binoculars or with a telescope. I should mention that it also has a 12 general skycharts, so you can always use the one according to your latitude and time of the year.

And the third part ("the Starhopping Guide") are 20 selected sectors of the sky, including stars up to 8th magnitude (deep-sky objects up to 12.5) with text and photos regarding deep sky features, double stars, nebulae etc. etc. Useful: constantly the text points out what you can expect to see with a given telescope (4", 6", 8" lens diameter).

And I have some mixed additional comments:
-I think every picture has been thoughtfully selected (no pictures just to fill space, as I've seen in other books).
-The sky maps are made by Will Tirion (so you can expect that

there is what should be there, and nothing less).
-There is a small map showing the path of sun eclipses until year 2015
-The moon is covered in 8 pages, featuring some 300 craters, mares etc.
-I liked the section about "in store test" for choosing binoculars.
-I was a little bit disappointed that the "Starhopping guide" includes many features for telescopes with an aperture of 8", and up to 16"... (of course, this is because I have a 5" aperture telescope!)
-The book itself has an uncommon size: about 6 1/2" x 11", so it's still handy to take it outdoors, but large enough to include sky maps of reasonable size.
-I see that this book includes in few words a lot of information that I've read in more detail somewhere else. I wonder how this will be taken for someone who this is her/his first skywatching book. It could be preciously treasured for years... or it could bore the the poor reader: Who knows?.
And finally, at the price offered here, it's a steal!

Este es el libro más claro y abarcativo de la materia que he leído. Trata los conceptos con mucha claridad y con ejemplos muy buenos, solo que todos son del hemisferio norte. La gráfica es muy clara y explicativa, sobre todo en los métodos de raleo que siempre son difíciles de entender. Lo he utilizado como estudiante y sigo usándolo como profesor de Silvicultura. Es el libro de cabecera para todo Forestal. Totalmente recomendable. La traducción al español es muy buena.

Intreging book for people that are interesed in energy work. Requires some prior knowledge of fundamental principles of the energy of the body. I found it very interesting for my personal quest of the purpose of life.

This book is a funny, gentle, and brainy exploration of nature writers and their subject. Though Robertson is clearly very knowledgeable, this book is not a guided tour. It is a search. Which is not to say the author has no particular point of view. Robertson IS preaching here a bit about the importance of nature, and all "real matter" in our lives, among other things. What makes this book so special is that with a twinkle in his eye he preaches from the pews as well as from the pulpit.

The state of Idaho is full of interesting geology; from the Craters of the Moon, to the Snake River Canyon, to the lakes of the Idaho Panhandle. Every tourist and sightseer should have a copy of this informative book to guide them along an adventure that includes geological orientation interwoven with on-site observation. A "must-read" for the traveler!

A nice addition to anyone's geology library. Alt and Hyndman cover every corner of Oregon, and explain the major players in the shape of the landscape clearly and succinctly, as well as local aspects of geology. There's the added bonus of being able to jump in the car and find what they've written about as they provide regional maps, indicating formations, special interest items and more.