Bookshelf ... "A Supremely Bad Idea"
"A Supremely Bad Idea" is a remarkably good first book, written in a style that is
reminiscent of Bill Bryson. In their search for rarely seen birds, Luke
Dempsey and the married couple who befriend him (and take advantage
of the fact that he drives, because they don't) travel to Arizona,
Florida, Michigan, the Pacific Northwest, Texas and Colorado as well
as the Northeast, where they live (mostly in NYC). In the process,
they see a lot of birds and stay an a succession of bad motels.
Beginning birders like me are sure to like this book; serious birders
might be less interested. Those who have no interest in birds at all but
enjoy funny travel books still might like these adventures of three mad birders.
Like Bryson, Dempsey is occasionally preachy (he doesn't like the fact that we're
destroying bird habitat, and he's certainly right about that; but he
never mentions success stories such as the comeback of the
bald eagle) and often very funny.
What I didn't like:
- Foul (not fowl) language. Not on every page, but occasional bursts of it. Dempsey uses words we're not allowed to use in the newspaper. I'm glad we're not allowed to use them.
- The use of the name of God as a proper noun, but with a lower-case g. What's up with that? Perhaps Dempsey doesn't believe in the diety, but if so, why mention God at all?
- Overly casual use of the language, with "words" such as "ain't" and "kinda" popping in. Maybe because Dempsey grew up in England he thinks he has to write that way for Americans to understand him. I think it's dumb.
Posted by: John Lundy on 9/27/2008 at 6:48 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
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