Quick Rec: An Immense World

Animals, am I right? Pretty neat. They’re like us people, only not.

Damn, I’m eloquent.

But for someone who can speak more eloquently on animals and their various conditions, I recommend Ed Yong, and his great nonfiction book, An Immense World.

The book looks at animals through their systems of perception, built around the concept of the “Umveldt,” the reality that a living being inhabits as defined by its senses. That’s a pretty heady concept, but he does a great job explaining it. A bat, for instance, doesn’t have our view of the world with sonar sense laid over it; its world is organized by sounds and movement, focusing in on hard, angular surfaces the way a bright color draws our eye.

Some animals live in a world of rushing, flowing currents, instantly separating their own movements from those of other animals (seals can hunt fish blindfolded, apparently). Elephants have acute hearing and so-so sight, but they also have a vibrational tremor sense, like Toph from Avatar the Last Airbender. Lots of animals seem to have magnetic fields, and it’s still really hard to figure out how.

This is a really lovely, informative book that stretches the imagination and helps readers reflect more deeply on just how rich and layered our world can be. I’m so glad I found this absolute hidden gem (see: very famous, Pulitzer Prize winner). But be warned: you may start annoying everyone around you with fun animal facts that you learn…

Did you know there’s a very good chance that dinosaurs could see ultraviolet light?