reading notes

by Richard Ellis

ISBN: 0140286764

I think the giant squid, even the idea of giant squid, is inherently fascinating. Unfortunately, this book was not all that fascinating.

Ellis is fascinated by giant squid; I’d even say he is obsessed. Like many people with an obsession, he goes on too long and repeats himself. As in, he not only references himself by explicit page number frequently, but repeats phrases and anecdotes that weren’t that great the first time around. A careful editor would have fixed these problems.

It can’t be easy to write a whole book about a creature that scientists have never been able to observe alive in its natural habitat. He includes a chapter on the giant squid in popular media, and a chapter about how many sea serpent sitings were probably giant squid sitings; he cites current experts; his references go on for longer than some chapters; he includes many, many photographs of dead giant squid. Ellis tried, I’ll give him that, but he did not deliver a book nearly as compelling as his subject matter warranted.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 26th, 2004 at 8:21 pm and is filed under nonfiction.