book log 002

[terabient]

title: Eye of the Shoal, Helen Scales

started: 5/13/21

ended: abandoned

genre: nonfiction, popular science

thoughts:

(5/13)
- In the first two pages of the prologue, I learned about Anableps, a fish genus also known as four-eyed fish, which was fun.

- the prologue does a lovely job at conveying a sense of being surrounded by water and watching fish. it's calming in a way that's hard to articulate. the first chapter, though....it rambles.

(5/15)
- impressed with how evocative the descriptions of fish are. I feel like a lot of modern popular science books rely on high-quality photography & illustrations instead of descriptive text, so reading such detailed passages is a treat. I'm especially impressed at how much Scales is able to convey in relatively few words--she's able to capture a fish's shape, size, and movement through their environment within a few sentences. It's a bit like watching an ink wash painter.

- eloquent fish language aside, the first few chapters have not been engaging. lol