Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Last Chance to See, by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine

 More highlights from my 2021 reading list (very late, I know):


This is a very good book.  It's funny (as you'd expect from Douglas Adams) and terribly saddening (as you'd expect from a book about endangered animals), and somehow those two things work together. 

The biology and ecology are interesting.

I did think it started off a bit on the wrong foot.  It felt less like an animal book and more like a travelogue which mostly consisted of complaining about the host country and pretty much everything else.  This was done in a witty way, of course, but it felt a little uncomfortable.  And when they met the first animal…it was over in about three lines.  I thought, "Come on, Douglas Adams, you're better than this."  And he was.  The book got better and better as it progressed.  I didn't want it to end.  There was a still too much complaining travelogue, but the author/s tied it in better to the complicated web of perils/benefits surrounding ecotourism.  And there was a lot more about the actual animals and the quest to find them.

Overall, sobering and entertaining at the same time—quite a feat of writing.

More accurate rating:  4.5 stars      


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