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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: $1.00
You Save: $13.00 (93%)
New (36) Collectible (2) from $2.87
Avg. Customer Rating:  49 reviews
Sales Rank: 294118
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: Lots of 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:
 An Engaging "Tail" of Some Odd Birds September 10, 2005
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Just when you think you've become jaded and said, "Well, I've seen everything.", this book comes along.
"Civilians" like myself have thought of birding as the province of sprightly elderly ladies with big jackets and bigger binoculars.
Little did I know it was populated by flocks of hard core adventurers who drop everything and fly cross-country, hire guides, endure hip deep snow, vomit prodigiously off the sterns of boats, and live for days on peanut butter and pretzels for the thrill of spotting 700+ tweeting,hooting,squawking,shrieking birds all in the space of one year.
The rules of the game are simple. You find a wild bird, spot it, and document it. How hard can that be? Well, you cannot go to the San Diego Zoo to do it, for starters. (That's what I'd do.) Oh, yes, there's the little detail that there are about 670 different birds native to the United States. Note the number 700+, above. You must be able to spot stragglers who have been swept into the country via storms, confusion, or accidental introduction as a non-native. This takes a sharp eye and lots of study.
The challenge to do in one year what many birders do in a lifetime not only drew in the three main protagonists of our story, but an entire subculture and small industry. I was particularly interested in the description of one salty woman who takes people on special boat tours off the coast of California to view pelagics, birds who spend their entire lives offshore.
The writing is what makes this book. The author took three birders as his central focus, but extensively interviewed other folk peripheral to and involved in the drama. The pacing of the writing not only made sense out of the birders' erratic schedules, but also gave their stories a sense of excitement in the competition.
It definitely changed my attitude about birding, big time. Maybe I'll dust off the bird book a friend gave me and see what I can find in my own town.
 A great people study book. May 11, 2005
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I think anyone who reads this book thinking they are going to learn about birding, or how to brid watch, are going to be very disappointed. This is a book about people, and their obsessions, rather than birds. I can just imagine me in a roomful of people, and then trying to figure out who is the avid, obsessed, birder. Try it. I dare you to. To be honest, I picked this book up, and layed it back down at least three times before I really got past the intoduction. I had a narrow minded view about the book going into it, and I knew I could not possibly be interested in a book about bird watching. But, once I got into the characters, I was hooked. What a great read.
A great Bird Voyeur birding book! April 22, 2005
6 out of 12 found this review helpful
I have to admit, before reading this book I was totally clueless about the "big year". I'd heard about life lists and scoffed. I watch birds because its interesting, I feed them because I feel guilty living on what used to be bird habitat. But I care not a whit whether or not I've seen all 600+ native species. I really enjoyed this story though. It's light reading, and very well written. I had no idea that those hummingbirds at my feeder had crossed the gulf of Mexico. I'm even more impressed. (by the birds, not the birders...)
But that Autu Alaska is now closed to birders who could at one time get to see non native species blown over by a storm, well I don't really care. It is great though that some people remember to live their passion. And that part is what makes this book a fun read.
The most exciting book I've read this year. February 25, 2005
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
No, I'm not being sarcastic. I mean it. Big Year is full of laughs, twists and yes, some touching moments. I love bird watching and road trips but the guys in Big Year are hard core competitors who operate on an entirely different plain than the novices.
The book is so well written that you can almost see yourself sitting in the backseat of Sandy Komito's Skuamobile as he prowls down the highway looking for birds. In fact, it's so vivid that Big Year would actually make a darn good movie. While reading it I kept imagining James Cagney or Oscar Levant as Komito, Gregory Peck or Walter Pigeon as Al Levantin and a very young Jimmy Stewart as Greg Miller, the wonderful optimist who decides to do a Big Year on the cheap.
The things these guys encounter while pursuing their passion such as mountain lions, cowboys with potbellied pigs, the horrors of economy flight, crocodiles, frozen graves, and icy cold outhouses are the stuff of adventure novels with a good sized dollop of comedy thrown in.
The Big year is fascinating, fun, and daydream inducing. I and most of the readers of the book will probably never get closer to a Big Year than vicariously through the book but after reading it I have started thinking that maybe, just maybe I could survive a one county Big Day. I loved the book and even my non nature loving friends found themselves laughing out loud when I read sections of it to them.
Great look at serious birding February 16, 2005
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Being a novice birder, I was very interested to read about what it takes to complete a Big Year, a calendar year of birding in which the participants try to see more species than anyone else. Apparently it takes an obsessive personality, a lot of money, and an unrelenting competitive spirit. Mark Obmascik captures all of this in his book which features the top 3 birders in the 1998 competition. The birders are as different as they are interesting. Sandy Komito is a former Big Year winner, Al Levantin is a retired CEO who lives in Aspen, and Greg Miller is a computer programmer who attempts to work full-time while doing a Big Year in his "spare time". Author Obmascik follows them all over North America, from the mosquitos of the Florida Everglades to the blinding snow storms of the remote island of Attu, and chronicles their successes, struggles, and failures. Adverse weather conditions, only an advantage to birders, allow these three men to tally huge numbers of birds. The book contains a lot of interesting birding history, insider practices, and a lot of laughs which make this a delightful read.
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