| Author: |
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Dan Koeppel
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| Title: |
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To See Every Bird on Earth: A Father, a Son, and a Lifetime Obsession |
| Moochable copies: |
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No copies available |
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| Topics: |
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| Published in: |
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English |
| Binding: |
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Hardcover |
| Pages: |
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288 |
| Date: |
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2005-05-05 |
| ISBN: |
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1594630011 |
| Publisher: |
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Hudson Street Press |
| Weight: |
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1.0 pounds |
| Size: |
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6.0 x 9.1 x 1.2 inches |
| Edition: |
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First Edition |
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| Description: |
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Product Description
From a well-known outdoors and nature writer comes a narrative that explores a lifelong obsession with competitive birding.
What drives a man to travel to sixty countries and spend a fortune to count birds? And what if that man is your father?
Richard Koeppel's obsession began at the age of eleven, in Queens, New York, when he first spotted a Brown Thrasher and promptly jotted the sighting in a notebook. Several decades, one failed marriage, and two sons later, he added an astonishing 517 birds to that list on a single trip to Kenya. Soon after, he ended the last romantic relationship he would ever have, scaled down his medical practice, and decided to see every bird on earth, becoming a "Big Lister," a member of a subculture of competitive bird-watchers worldwide, all pursuing the same goal. Over twenty-five years, he collected more than 7,000 species (of a known 9,600), becoming one of about ten people ever to do so.
To See Every Bird on Earth explores the thrill of this chase, the all-absorbing crusade at the expense of all else, and travel, to places both dangerous and dull, for the sake of making a check mark in a notebook. It's also the story of obsession-answering the questions why list? and why birds?-and how it defines us. A riveting glimpse into a fascinating subculture, To See Every Bird on Earth traces the love, loss, and reconnection between a father and a son, and explains why birds are so critical to the human search for our place in the world.
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| URL: |
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http://bookmooch.com/1594630011 |
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