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Sex, Drugs, And Sea Slime: The Oceans' Oddest Creatures And Why They Matter (2011)

by Ellen J. Prager(Favorite Author)

3.68 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0226678725 (ISBN13: 9780226678726)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

University Of Chicago Press

review 1: I first had a bit of difficulty getting into the book because though it was not a large volume the typography was jammed in to the point that for me it made reading it a big tedious. Once I got into it I found it do be interesting and fascinating in many ways. The diversity and unusual things found in the oceans is pretty amazing. The conclusion delves into the ecological perils that we have created in our consumer oriented world that puts the balance of life in some jeopardy. It is easy to dismiss this as the typical sky if falling ecology movement but it is hard to not be concerned about consequences should things get out of hand. Altogether a well researched and written book.
review 2: I eagerly awaited for this book to come in to the library, as I adore wei... morerd sea creatures. They give credence to the ideas that the world is full of wonders, and science can be crazy interesting. I unfortunately found this book a bit of a disappointment. There were, indeed, many wondrous creatures to behold. Sea cucumbers can apparently eject their inner organs when threatened. Hagfish emit an astonishing amount of slime. And don’t even get me started on sea stars, whose many sucker-filled arms give me nightmares, due to their resemblance (to me) of the face-huggers from Alien. Still, the book was unexciting in its writing, and repetitive in structure. Each chapter would start with a creature, describe how it looked, lived, ate, and reproduced, and rinse and repeat many times so that they began to run together a bit. I think what I found most disappointing was that there weren’t more pictures. I was delighted by the beautiful plates that did appear in the book, as some of these things had to be seen to be believed. I think that the excitement of these creatures is probably best conveyed in words and pictures (or videos--thanks, You Tube!). Only reading about them in words leaves something out. less

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