Aldo Leopold (1887–1948)

Mark Twain said, “A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.” If you spend any time at all reading ecological literature, you will see A Sand County Alamanc referred to as one of the classics in the genre. But in this case, Twain is wrong. This is a wonderful book. Leopold has a wry style; never out-and-out funny, but enough to keep my smiling throughout much of the book. He also deploys references historical, philosophical, religious, and literary, giving the text a rich texture. But Leopold also has a deadly serious point to the book. And he makes his case well, which is why people have been reading this book for 70 years. I highly, highly recommend the book.… (mais)

1.5 stars

This was immensely boring. The majority of the book is Leopold waxing poetic about various animals and plants. In the final section, he finally speaks about the application of ethics to ecology, which was slightly more thought-provoking, but not necessarily well-written or -organized.

He said just a handful of things that I believe were worth writing about, but I have to believe that someone, somewhere, has done much greater justice to nature writing.

Note: There are references to Darwinian evolutionary theory as fact.… (mais)