Natural Acts : A Sidelong View of Science and Nature

Octopus-wrestling, vampire moths, and disaffected crows - oh my! I like David Quammen. More to the point, I want to be David Quammen. Back in the early 1980's, with neither scientific nor journalistic background, he stumbled into a sweet gig writing about the natural world for Outside Magazine, and he's never looked back.

Natural Acts was the title of that Outside column and the title of a 1985 collection of pieces from that column. Well, it's back, and it's bigger and better than before with the addition of longer and more recent essays in this expanded edition. Quammen's humor, his broad liberal arts view of the world, and a pen honed over decades make him one of the most engaging science writers around.

Review of Natural Acts by David Quammen