by Konrad Lorenz
My daughter read this book for her high school science class. She so enjoyed the book she told me all about it practically verbatim. Her stories peaked my interest and since I had a little free summer reading time, I thought I’d give it a read.
It was that rare unicorn of a book: informative and entertaining. Mr. Lorenz was an Austrian scientist that studied animal behavior. He named the book King Solomon’s Ring because of a legend that claimed King Solomon had a ring that let him understand animals. He believed the legend because he believed he shared King Solomon’s gift for speaking with animals.
His favorite way to study animals was to have them living as freely as possible in his own house and yard. This made for some very entertaining stories when his animal subjects would inevitably interact with the author’s family, friends, neighbors and, of course, the author himself.
Mr. Lorenz has an amiable story telling style that is akin to listening to stories from a beloved grandfather with a knack for telling a yarn about his amazing life. And his life was amazing. He took many interesting animals into his care and spoke of them with almost a childlike wonder and delight. It was obvious that he loved animals and wanted to spread that love to others by telling the world their stories to illustrate how captivating they are.
Like my daughter, I very much enjoyed this book.I liked the anecdotes, the information and the narrative style. I highly recommend it.
0 Comments