Earlier this year, I read Always Rachel: The Letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman. It is one of those wonderful books that leads you to other books! Many other books...

It's not just the fact that Rachel and Dorothy were readers and occasionally talked about the books they were reading (like Ring of Bright Water). But also what book was pushing Rachel Carson's book off the best seller list (Gift from the Sea). Or the books Rachel's friends were writing (Captive Wild).

I read Lost Woods: The Discovered Writing of Rachel Carson, by the wonderful Linda Lear, next. And I found out...

The John Burroughs Medal awarded for excellence in nature writing was the one award Rachel Carson coveted.

Rachel's acceptance speech was one of my favorite essays in Lost Woods. And I immediately looked up the award list for the Burroughs Medal.

The award began in 1926. Rachel Carson got the award in 1952 for The Sea Around Us.

It's a long list, but down at the bottom, The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating, won the award in 2011. And I loved that book as well. So I scanned the list for something new to read...

And I found the 1997 winner, The Song Of The Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction. Yep, it's 700 pages. and Yep, it takes me about an hour to read 10 pages. I will be reading this book for a very long time. But it's absolutely fascinating!

Static8 > Journal > Archive > 23 mar 2013 Entry

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