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| The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession | 
| Author: Mark Obmascik
Publisher: audible.com
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $13.63
You Save: $12.32 (47%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  48 reviews
Media: Audio Download
ASIN: B0001I1L2M
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Also Available In:
| • | Hardcover - The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession (Random House Large Print (Cloth/Paper)) | | • | Audio Cassette - The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature and Fowl Obsession | | • | Hardcover - The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession | | • | Audio Cassette - The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession | | • | Audio CD - The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature and Fowl Obsession | | • | Audio CD - The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession | | • | Kindle Edition - Big Year | | • | Paperback - The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession | | • | Audio Download - The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession (Unabridged) |
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Book Description
Every year on January 1, a quirky crowd of adventurers storms out across North America for a spectacularly competitive event called a Big Year -- a grand, grueling, expensive, and occasionally vicious, "extreme" 365-day marathon of birdwatching. For three men in particular, 1998 would be a whirlwind, a winner-takes-nothing battle for a new North American birding record. In frenetic pilgrimages for once-in-a-lifetime rarities that can make or break their lead, the birders race each other from Del Rio, Texas, in search of the rufous-capped warbler, to Gibsons, British Columbia, on a quest for Xantus's hummingbird, to Cape May, New Jersey, seeking the offshore great skua. Bouncing from coast to coast on their potholed road to glory, they brave broiling deserts, roiling oceans, bug-infested swamps, a charge by a disgruntled mountain lion, and some of the lumpiest motel mattresses known to man. The unprecedented year of beat-the-clock adventures ultimately leads one man to a new record -- one so gigantic that it is unlikely ever to be bested...finding and identifying an extraordinary 745 different species by official year-end count. Prize-winning journalist Mark Obmascik creates a rollicking, dazzling narrative of the 275,000-mile odyssey of these three obsessives as they fight to the finish to claim the title in the greatest -- or maybe the worst -- birding contest of all time. With an engaging, unflappably wry humor, Obmascik memorializes their wild and crazy exploits and, along the way, interweaves an entertaining smattering of science about birds and their own strange behavior with a brief history of other bird-men and -women; turns out even Audubon pushed himself beyond the brink when he was chasing and painting the birds of America. A captivating tour of human and avian nature, passion and paranoia, honor and deceit, fear and loathing, The Big Year shows the lengths to which people will go to pursue their dreams, to conquer and categorize -- no matter how low the stakes. This is a lark of a read for anyone with birds on the brain -- or not.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 43 more reviews...
 Fantastic idea for a book, but deplorable writing! August 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The topic of the "big year" is really quite compelling, and I thought this book would take its place on my shelf right next to The Orchid Thief, in the section reserved for obsessives who focus solely on one aspect of the natural world and seek that single thing with complete devotion. Unfortunately, the writing in this book is nowhere near the quality of The Orchid Thief, and doesn't deserve a spot on my shelf at all. First, the good things: The three birders featured are exactly right for the book. The author sort of succeeded in teaching the reader about birds, their environment, and birding. (He's about 70 percent there.) Most importantly, he clearly explains why 1998 is the year that MUST be covered, even though it was a decade ago.
But the writing! He needs to learn how to describe an animal without using ANY references to pop culture. He needs to understand that in a book about birding, the reader does NOT want constant references to media and commercialization.
Here are specific examples of bad writing that distracted me so much I almost didn't finish the book:
1. The pygmy owl "weighed less than a pack of cigarettes." Is the author a heavy smoker with no concept of the fact that most nature lovers (his market for the book) think smoking is disgusting? It's especially disgusting in nature. Now he has combined, in my mind, the image of a cute little owl in a tree with a rude creep blowing smoke next to the owl's tree, with a disgusting, overflowing ash tray next to him. There are SO many other, far less distasteful, ways to describe the owl's weight.
2. "...the keel-billed toucan, that screeching, big-honkered bird made famous by Froot Loops." I almost threw the book across the room right here. I am mortally offended that the author thinks I, or anybody else who would buy this book, might not remember what a toucan is without a crass comparison to a stupid commercial for a repulsive product that nobody should be eating anyway. This is a book about BIRDS. I really, really don't want to be reminded of commercials! And everybody buying this book knows what a toucan is! Don't worry, we're not complete idiots! Also, the word "honker" is unnecessarily disrespectful. Toucans have beautiful and correctly sized beaks, and there is no need to use a disparaging, fifth-grade insult such as "honker." Things like this make me think the author doesn't like birds. That is a serious problem for an author writing a birding book.
3. "The yellow rail was the Greta Garbo of the bird world." This means nothing to me. I know she was a movie star (1950s? `60s? `40s?), but that's the extent of my knowledge. That is the crux of the problem. When an author relies on constant references to outdated movie stars to explain a concept, he leaves behind all the readers who don't share his media obsession. Five sentences later, "the yellow rail would never win any Miss Congeniality contests." Is this an unnecessary reference to that stupid movie years ago by the same name? Or is the author being mean and insulting to birds again?
4. "Maybe this really was a Bud Light commercial." Please leave all the commercials out of the birding book! Likewise, please note: brand names cheapen a book, they don't add "authenticity" or "flavor" or whatever it is that some inexperienced teachers call it in their writing classes. The following brand-name plugs all insulted me in the short space of just ten pages: Snickers, Wal-Mart, Spam, Wonder Bread, Jif peanut butter, Lipton, Mr. Salty pretzels. And if that's not bad enough, I later suffered this, probably the worst sentence in the entire book, or any other book I've read in the last year: "Miller clicked his Netscape Navigator back over to www.travelocity.com."
5. The bird was "...as tall as a Coke can but without the fizz." With regard to comparing a bird to junk food, I'm thinking again that the author doesn't really respect birds. With regard to putting in a plug for Coke, see #4. With regard to "the fizz," I have no idea what the author is trying to say. That completely mystifies me.
6. "He wasn't supposed to feel like Evel Knievel every time a bill came due." What the hell?!
I was particularly disappointed because there's actually a great deal of potential for this book due to its subject matter and characters. If I could have offered advice prior to its publication, it would have been this: The author should first decide whether or not he loves birds. If so, he should show that in his writing. Then, he should remove every movie star, media reference, and brand name. He should add more background information on specific birds and their environment. He should provide the American Birding Association's list of rules for the Big Year (I was wondering about this throughout the entire book). He should read The Orchid Thief and learn from it. Then, this would be a fabulous book!
 Fowl Language April 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"The Big Year" is an amazing, amusing, suspenseful read about competing birders. Who would've thought that birdwatching could be so cutthroat, and so FUN?
It traces the adventures of three men- Sandy Komito (whose achievements are astounding in the birding world), the chemist Al Levantin, and software expert Greg Miller. They sacrifice a year of their lives to find as many birds as possible. Komito is in it to break records. Levantin is looking for a new way to live his retirement. Miller is recovering from a nasty divorce. In the Big Year, they find adventure, birds, and themselves. They travel in the Rockies, the Florida wilderness, remote parts of Nevada--- it's great as a quest story.
"Big Year" is exuberant nature writing. Like the blackbird in the Beatles song, read this and take flight!
Competitive birding: obsession or passion? January 28, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
If you enjoyed Kingbird Highway: The Biggest Year in the Life of an Extreme Birder, Wild America: The Record of a 30,000 Mile Journey Around the Continent by a Distinguished Naturalist and His British Colleague or anything by Scott Weidensaul, you'll enjoy Obmascik's account of an unlikely collection of birders bent on breaking records.
The concept of the Big Year is pretty simple: see as many birds as possible. Since its inception, this simple concept has ballooned into a circus of maxed out credit cards, exorbitant helicopter flights and boat rides, visits to dumps on the Mexican border, and Christmas dinners in isolated Chinese restaurants. This book chronicles three competitors and their attempts at Birdwatching glory: Sandy Komito (the hardcore favorite, record-holding former construction worker), Greg Miller (the longshot computer programmer, working with limited resources) and Al Levantin (the rich, passionate retired chemical company tycoon).
As I see it, this book has two real strengths:
1.) For those of us who dream of dropping everything, getting in a car with a pair of binoculars and seeing all the birds that had previously only been pictures in field guides, this book is both fulfilling and inspiring. Fulfilling, in that at the end of a long day, its a passable substitute for having the time to actually go out and see the rare birds. Inspiring, in its affirmation that anybody--even you--can do it, as long as you're willing to sacrifice.
2.) The subjects of the story are developed into character so nicely in journalistic prose. You'll learn to root for the underdog, respect their sacrifice, and pity all of them for their clinically obsessive behavior.
I'd encourage anyone interested in adventure or birding to read this book. You won't be disappointed, and probably won't be able to put it down.
A terrific book, even for non-birders. January 26, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
An awesome book. It took recommendations from several friends before I finally decided to give this book a try. The subject matter seemed so uninteresting to me.
When you're wrong, you're wrong, and I was totally off base on this one. It was fascinating from start to finish. What I realise now is that books like this one, which document someone's obsession (doesn't have to be the author's) often turn out to be completely engrossing, if the author (as Obmascik does) succeeds in conveying the inherent excitement in a topic that gave rise to the obsession in the first place.
Never thought I would say it about a book related to birding, but I just cannot give this book a high enough recommendation.
 Not a birder but loved the book January 2, 2008
I particularly enjoyed this book for the exposure that it gave me to the birder's world. I can never see myself being as enthusiastic about birds as these folks were but it was fascinating to hear about the "sub-culture". Everyone has something they are passionate about and there are a few of my passions that I am sure have made others look at me strangely. My recommendation is to definitely get this book and then have a guide to birds handy so that when the birders get particularly enamored with some bird or another, you can look it up and see what all the fuss is about. My only hold back for not giving this book 5 stars is that the author wrote in a very detached style. The only time I really felt any passion from the author was when he wrote about the hummingbird that had traveled the coast and nearly died. He is a birder but yet his book read very factual - not emotional. It read like a fact-filled newspaper story...just the facts ma'am. (but i still loved the book)
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