My O Author

The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


"A feathered version of It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" ~~ Outside magazine

"Every January 1, a quirky crowd storms out across North America for a spectacularly competitive event called a Big Year -- a grand, expensive, and occasionally vicious 365-day marathon of birdwatching. For three men in particular, 1998 would become a grueling battle for a new North American birding record. Bouncing from coast to coast on frenetic pilgrimages for once-in-a-lifetime rarities, they brave broiling deserts, bug-infested swamps, and some of the lumpiest motel mattresses known to man. This unprecedented year of beat-the-clock adventures ultimately leads one man to a record so gigantic that it is unlikely ever to be bested. Here, prize-winning journalist Mark Obmascik creates a dazzling, fun narrative of the 275,000-mile odyssey of those three obsessives as they fight to win the greatest -- or maybe the worst -- birding contest of all time."
~~back cover

This is a fascinating book. Who knew there are people who are daft enough to put their whole lives on hold and spend an entire year compulsively racing after tick marks on a list of birds? They eat, sleep, breathe and dream birds: rare species, everyday back yard species, pelagic species, desert species, mountain species, swamp species. It's rather like those contests to see who can eat the most hot dogs in 10 minutes -- nobody tastes the hot dogs, they just cram as many as possible into their mouths before the final whistle blows. The men (& I suppose sometimes there are women) are only interested in "bagging" enough birds to break the record. They don't care which birds they see (or just hear), they're not interested in the beauty or rarity of the birds themselves. They just want to break the record, become someone famous.

It was intriguing -- I could hardly put it down.

And even though the movie is never as good as the book, I can't wait to see it!