Se retrouver dans un coin perdu de l'Australie sans plus rien à lire... puis tomber sur une étagère de bouquins d'occasion dans le Visitor Centre de Fitzroy Crossing, au cœur des Kimberley... et dénicher ce récit hilarant d'un auteur britannique que je n'avais jamais lu en VO. Le lire avec plaisir et éclats de rire, malgré mes insuffisances de vocabulaire. Et puis le ramener dans la valise pour le faire voyager !

Voici la quatrième de couverture :
If you were trying to film badgers in the New Forest, would you throw peanut butter sandwiches to attract them ? How would you feel about creeping up to a Great White Rhino before saying your lines nervously to the camera ?
Gerald Durrell found himself doing these things and worse during the filming of his highly successful TV series, "The Amateur naturalist". [...]
Through it all he is his characteristically hilarious, irrepressible self, coping with uncooperative animals and TV producers alike, and passionate as ever about the natural world mankind is rapidly destroying.

Lancement d'un ray, voici le fil pour s'inscrire :
http://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/17/546055

Le ray démarre à Strasbourg.
Bonne lecture !
1. Nodame
2. Tamsine
3. Souram
4. Ydam21
5. Over-the-moon
6. Kundri

Un livre qui vient de loin remis en main propre par Indy ce soir au Troc'café.

A l'occasion de notre rencontre mensuelle.

one of the first books I read in English when I was a student was by Gerald Durrel. I am sure this one will be just as funny

j'avoue avoir sauté l'une ou l'autre page quand il décrit les insectes, qui ne sont pas mes amis, mais j'ai découvert des animaux dont je n'avais jamais entendu parler, comme les Pika. Les épisodes dans la New Forest ,en Afrique du sud et à Corfou sont très drôles.

en route pour Genève

How to Shoot an Amateur Naturalist est bien arrivé chez moi, merci, Tamsine. Bonne nouvelle pour conclure la journée.

Je l'ai commencé hier soir.

Durrell et sa verve narrative. J'aime bien le chapitre sur le nord des Shetland. Où G. D. a tellement le vertige que descendre un sentier à flanc de falaise représente un énorme défi (je le comprends).
Il s'agit d'Unst, l'île la plus septentrionale du Royaume-Uni, connue pour sa réserve naturelle Hermaness:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermaness

Gannet = fou de Bassan, shag = une espèce de cormoran, puffin = macareux. Et bien sûr les très territoriaux labbes (skuas).

Corfou, des années après l'enfance de G. D.
Les cactus saguaros du Sonora.
Un orvet, surnommé serpent de verre.
Eh bien Gerry Durrell garde toute sa verve.

Lors de l'étape à Corfou, Gerald Durrell cite des anecdotes racontées dans My Family and Other Animals. Un coup d'œil à travers la brume violette des souvenirs d'enfance (ce mois-ci, cette brume est violette).

Fini. Durrell en verve.

Il ne t'est jamais donné de rêve sans le pouvoir de le réaliser. (Richard Bach)

Eh bien, vous avez découvert quelque chose...
Un livre abandonné exprès !
N'ayez pas d'hésitation: donnez votre avis, ou racontez votre découverte, cela nous plaît de savoir ce que deviennent les livres "libérés" ainsi.

Un coup d'œil à la première de couverture et déjà l'humour pointe. Envie de lire ... Mais d'autres rings sont sur ma pàl. Je vais devoir respecter un certain ordre et patienter pour en savoir plus ;-D
Merci Indy et Souram pour le partage et l'envoi.

Ce livre a fait une étape fort divertissante chez moi.
Son voyage continue entre tes mains.
Bonne lecture over-the-moon !

Il est chez moi, je me réjouis - car je croyais avoir lu tout Durrell.

True to his usual amusing simile-studded style, Durrell relates the filming of a series of TV programmes that take us to many places around the world, from English hedgerows to the Sonora Desert and the Camargue, all with fascinating flora or fauna (or both). He is an excellent story-teller, constantly making fun of people's eccentricities but without ever being offensive; it all makes him seem very endearing. His anthropomization of animals makes it all vivid and lively and not too overly cute; the man can even make you like snakes and spiders. I loved his description of the balloon ride - exactly as it is (I floated over Cappadocia); also the skeletons of the cacti, the adorable little hedgehogs, the fast and slinky weasels and the detailed explanation of fig pollination. He tells how the fig wasp enters the fig through a doorway of scales, which I have never actually noticed in a fig (usually I eat the dried ones and any doorway is shrivelled up). But just by coincidence, today in the supermarket I found some fresh green figs, and there was the doorway, a little red circle of overlapping scales. I took some home to photograph, and here you have it, the entrance to a fig. I'm just hoping I'm not going to find the remains of a wasp inside.
I was also struck by the fact that Durrell is bemoaning the depletion of the forests back in 1984 when the book was written, and that today the situation is even worse and no one has done anything about it. I deplore that the human race has not respected the world it lives in, and if I'm not mistaken is the only animal to destroy its environment.

To end with a recommendation: watch David Attenborough's TV series Blue Planet II.

Il reprend son voyage et va chez Kundri.

Le livre est bien arrivé chez moi, accompagné d’une belle carte zen, d’un marque-page et d’un joli cahier.
Merci à Over-the-moon pour ce joli paquet, et à Indy pour le partage.
Le fait que ce livre vienne d’Australie ajoutera subjectivement au plaisir de ma lecture!

At first I found it a little bit odd to read the making-off of a TV series I hadn't seen, written by a naturalist I didn't know. But I was soon caught by the hilarious anecdotes and the author's irresistible sense of humour. At the end, I really enjoyed the reading.

Being an ornithologist myself (but a very very amateur one), all anecdotes speaking about how to attract animals sounded familiar to me. I've never tried to fish an owl with a mouse, though... But I have found myself trying other more conventional means like throwing food to birds after hours of desperate search - and then not being able to take a picture of the bird without the piece of food showing up on the picture, said picture being anyway of poor quality due to me being too far away from the bird (see. e.g. my only picture of the namibian dune lark). I'm all the more amazed by the wonderful pictures you can see on TV programmes - and I must say I got some egoistic comfort learning that sometimes tame animals are used...

After having been in Australia, France and Switzerland, the book has now begun a travel to the Netherlands: Camerfan is interested in reading it, and has some good ideas for a wild release.

Today in my home town. Thank you Kundri for sending it to me.

I'm glad to be of help. This book has a long travel history and it deserves a good place. After reading it I will see to that.

It was not exactly my cup of tea so, as promised, I let the book move on.

I left the book under a windscreen wiper of a camper with UK license plates. The poor guy had a parking ticket under the other wiper so I hope the book will make him feel better.