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| The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession | 
| Author: Mark Obmascik
Publisher: Free Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy Used: $0.98
You Save: $13.02 (93%)
New (40) Collectible (3) from $2.87
Avg. Customer Rating:  49 reviews
Sales Rank: 179829
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.8
ISBN: 0743245466
Dewey Decimal Number: 598.07234
EAN: 9780743245463
ASIN: 0743245466
Publication Date: February 1, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Shelf wear, may contain some notes or highlighting, corners/edges worn and bent, may not include companion materials like cdroms or access codes.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Entertaining Book. Easy to Read. May 28, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I was given this book for helping someone move, and had no idea what it was about until I started reading it. I'm not a birder nor do I know any, but this book was very easy to read. You don't need to know about birds to enjoy this entertaining book, as it is the pursuit of the birds by three competitors -- each trying to break a record -- that is important and makes it fun to read.
If you have a friend that is into birding -- meaning, someone who keeps life lists of birds (and, I wouldn't have known what that meant before reading this book) -- then this book is highly recommended and would make a great gift. Even if you are not into birding and are looking for something different to read, you can't go wrong with "The Big Year".
Who thought a birding book could be a nail-biting page-turner? April 22, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Mark Obmascik's book "The Big Year" is a truly great read. It's a make a pot of coffee, turn off the ringer on the phone, all-weekend read-a-thon book. The three Big Year contenders with their humor, quirks and humility will keep you enthralled from beginning to end. I highly recommend it.
Anyone who has ever been excited about anything should read this book March 18, 2007
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
If you don't like this book you probably are dull and not a close friend of mine!
"If you had a year of your life to do anything you wanted, and you could do only that thing for a year, what would you do? These three guys all chose to chase birds." There's a term for this, a "Big Year," and it's a competitive event.
The excitement and love these men have is heartwarming. Their entirely reasonable excesses in having truly excellent "Big Years" are exciting and invigorating. And their passion is incredible!
I like birds. I can tell a sparrow from a titmouse, and a crow from pigeon. I've seen bald eagles, but can't tell you if there are any hairy eagles or other varieties. I can't reliably tell a morning dove from a pigeon, but I feed them both and am happy seeing them out my windows. That's my level of interest in birds.
I've met intense birders twice. One was a birdman named Lee, who had a grant from the World Bank to see if the natives in the Republic of Kiribati were eating rare birds, and generally check on the status of birds there. I was in Kiribati fishing with my friend Mabbott who actually managed to hook a few endangered species. Some are probably endangered because they are stupid - the boobys certainly were no rocket scientists!
I met the other gentleman while flying to Alaska to fish. He was going to try to spot Siberian species not normally found in North America, but that are occasionally blown over when the wind goes the right way. These species play prominently in "The Big Year" as do trips to the Aleutian Islands in Alaska to chase them. Since I've been to both Alaska and the Republic of Kiribati several times to fish, it should be clear that I have my intense interests as well. Both men fascinated me with their drive and obsession. They knew what they loved and were doing it!
Competitions are no stranger to me either. I once fished the entire month of the Martha's Island Fishing Derby. I was a regular before having kids. I never won, but do have a 3rd place plaque for a fish I caught while flyfishing in a gale. I also regularly take part in ham radio competitions. They typically last 48 continuous hours and I usually manage to operate 45+ hours, much of that time with one radio going into each ear. I find the mere thought of a year long competition fascinating!
This book is a natural for me, but I think almost anyone with a passion for just about anything can relate, whether it's their business, profession, a hobby, a sport, etc.
These three men are all very different people and didn't know each other at the beginning. One was the reigning champion, having established the record years earlier, and was now trying to break his own record. Although he economized somewhat, neither money nor time were issues. One was a recently retired executive. He had a lifelong passion for birding, and plenty of time and money, but he had the least experience. Corporate life had contained his enthusiasm for decades and he was now busting loose. And the last worked a fulltime job amazingly, and was so broke he borrowed money from his parents and often ate dogfood - or was it catfood? They all shattered the existing record!
Lively told tale of awe-inspiring passion for birds March 12, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Whether you are an obsessive birder or an armchair traveler, you'll enjoy The Big Year.
In 1998, three men, very different from each other, but with a similar obsession, spent the year traveling throughout North America in order to break the previous record to see as many different bird species as possible.
These birds were not always right there in a tree off the highway either. The birders sometimes flew long distances and traveled through snow, sleet, rain, mosquito-infested swamps, through private yards, garbage dumps, up mountains, over water and wherever the bird was.
Interspersed throughout are stories about some of the more famous bird people such as John James Audubon and Roger Tory Peterson (as in Peterson's Guide to...) and about different birds and how they came to live where they do naturally, by human intervention, or being blown off course.
The author writes in a lively style and lets us travel along with these men who had the same dream and pursued it with such incredible awe-inspiring passion.
The birds probably got the last laugh over why someone would go through so much trouble just to look at them for a few seconds. But you'll laugh too. Highly recommended.
 Enjoyable account of birders going after record December 8, 2006
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
First of all, I'm not a birder. I have no lifelist, no checklists, and I couldn't tell apart sparrows if my life depended on it. And birders are weird. I remember hiking around a forest preserve near Chicago listening to 2 bird nuts arguing about what kind of LBJ's (little brown jobbies) they were looking at. If I would have had a gun, I would have ended their arguments rather quickly by shooting both birders and leaving the birds alone.
However, I do enjoy nature, I enjoy a well-written adventure story, and I enjoy reading humorous accounts of the lengths people will go to indulge in a passion. This book succeeds in all these ways.
A journalist, Mark Obmascik, details the adventures of 3 birding fanatics as they try to set a record for the North American "Big Year" - that is, seeing as many species as possible in a calendar year in the US.
Sandy Komito, the previous record holder, is the best organized and has the resources to go anywhere at a moment's notice. Greg Miller is the everyman who squeezes birding trips in between his work schedule, borrowing money from his parents when his credit cards get maxed out. Retiree Al Levantin also has the resources to go anywhere, anytime but isn't as obsessed as the other two. The drama of watching the competition is absorbing, and you will probably end up rooting for one of the three, just like you root for a beloved sports team.
The book really isn't a natural history book, although the stories of where the birds are can be educational. The three travel from the furthest Aleutian Island to Key West and everywhere in between on their quest. But what a wonderful account of 3 guys having the time of their lives pursuing something they love. Almost made me want to try for a Big Year of my own. Everyone should have such a quest at least once in their lives.
And regarding nature, this book made me finally drive the 30 miles to the Bear River Bird Refuge here in Northern Utah and watch in awe as Blue Heron's took flight, curlews foraged in the shallow waters, Bald Eagles perched in branches and I walked through a giant, cacophonous flock of yellow-headed blackbirds.
A wonderful, simple, pleasurable read.
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