🐡
One of the most memorable and fascinating books I have read in a while. This is about, among other things, early 20th century explorer and scientist William Beebe’s adventures and exploits in exploring the unseen deep ocean and witnessing all its strange life forms in a bathysphere, as well as stories about his contemporaries/friends of the era and general musings on the nature of exploration. Chapters are not always linear and include his logbook entries and illustrations, they’re no more than 2-3 pages at a time, capturing vivid vignettes and creating an almost dream like type of prose, much like the wonder and awe Beebe must have experienced seeing all of this himself- it’s far from a dry scientific account- the author Brad Fox has truly done something special here. Really cannot do it justice so check it out yourself to see.
Sep 11, 2024
Related Recs
in 1930, two men climbed into a ball and were lowered 3,000+ deep into the ocean and through a tiny window, they witnessed hundreds of new species of fish and other marine life. but the deeper they went, the darker it got. and they experienced new levels of dark that lingered with them the rest of their lives.
brad fox poetically writes about the incredible and complicated history of the bathysphere project and everyone involved, and it's a book i'm gonna return to every year.
Sep 23, 2024
This book rec was inspired by sofe’s lil squid story. This book is about the evolution of sentient life; with a heavy emphasis on cephalopods, as their evolutionary tree branched off from our common ancestors so long ago. Octopuses have been my fav animal for ages but I hadn’t realised how cool squid are too! And cuttlefish fish! He describes the process by which they change colour and it blew my mind, they essentially have biological pixels, for cuttlefish anyway, they have two different kinds of pixel-like cells/muscles that control two different colour spectrums. It’s a really brilliant book, and for those who are put off by too sciency books (myself included tbh), this book is a philosophy/science hybrid!
Jun 6, 2024
🐙
my brain wants to know more about other brains and itself but its been stuck on a sci fi tear for a few years
Sep 24, 2024
Top Recs from @rabidwell
🔢
I don’t believe in ranking things- restaurants, albums, books, movies, athletes anything, top x lists whatever. I think it’s a waste of time honestly. Even with a completely objective criterion what’s the point. Would rather listen to and read people just talk about their favorite things and why they are special and meaningful to them- everyone has their own, interesting reasons. And this is a great place to do that!
Feb 26, 2025
Mar 2, 2025
Feb 6, 2025