Month: January 2014

by Gina Sandford

Another solid book on fish and their care. It covers freshwater, brackish and marine setups; I focused most of my reading on the freshwater parts and browsed through the rest. Detailed descriptions of fish biology, including things like scale types and how the body performs various functions. A nice little history on how the fishkeeping hobby began and what early aquariums were like- very interesting. Nearly two hundred species of fish, representatives from every family group present in the aquarium trade, has a species page with specifics on their needs. There is a short section on plants (unsatisfactory) and lots of detailed explanations of various equipment and their use- probably the best information I\’ve read on the different types of filter systems yet. Tells you step by step how to set up and establish an aquarium, which is useful if you\’ve never done one before (certain things done out of order or carelessly can be disastrous later). Also outlines how to choose healthy fish, introduce them with the least amount of stress, distract resident fish from harassing newcomers to your tank, feed them all properly, deal with health problems and more. I liked particularly that there was a page on evaluating an establishment and how to choose a retailer or fish dealer who will have healthy, well-cared for specimens and not just be about making the sale. I appreciated that on most areas of fishkeeping, this book points out common errors and how to avoid them. And it made me chuckle when among the list of essential items to having an aquarium was \”tolerant family members\”!

Through all these pages I learned quite a few interesting facts about fish themselves, and encountered a lot of new, very beautiful species I never saw before (as this book features saltwater fish too, which I haven\’t really been reading about since they\’re beyond my ability to keep) I have to say the most stunning, gorgeous creature I\’ve ever seen is the mandarin fish. Wow. It\’s so beautiful it doesn\’t look real. Very good photographs and illustrations throughout.

Borrowed this one from the public library.

Rating: 4/5     256 pages, 1999

A new year, and the Dare is underway. I\’m participating for the fourth time. Last year I manage to stick to it all the way to April, and read thirteen books off my shelves. In 2012 I cleared seventeen books. 2011 was siderailed by the urge to read pregnancy books, so I only did the Dare for one month. I\’m planning to go all the way again this year, although I still have a handful of fish books from the library in my house. But they came in before the year rolled over, so that\’s fine. Here\’s what\’s on the reading menu this year!

This is my main TBR shelf, plus that stack on the floor to the side.

I also have this small bookcase, the bottom shelf holds a lot of coffe-table nature books, mostly National Geographic ones and books featuring some national parks.

There\’s also a lot of large books full of nice big photographs on this shelf that I haven\’t read yet, most of them about animals.

And we can\’t forget the addition of some fishie books that were recently given to me!

That\’s a total (if my LibraryThing tally is accurate) of 244 books I have available to read off my own shelves. Let\’s see how big of a dent I can make this time.

The numbers can be deceiving. I had an idea that once again, I\’ve not been reading as much as I used to (it\’s hard to find time anymore) so I was pretty pleased when my initial count of books came up to a hundred and ninety one! But then I realized that\’s the number of titles I blogged about. Many of those books I\’d read years before (and was just remembering as best I could). They don\’t really count. So here\’s the real numbers:

Total books read- 148

Fiction- 97
Non-fiction- 51

non-fiction breakdown
Art- 2
Self-help, Parenting- 3
Gardening- 4
J Non-fiction- 4
Memoirs- 6
Nature- 6
Animals- 30 (of those, 20 on fishes!)
Other- 2

fiction breakdown
YA- 1
Historical Fiction- 3
Fantasy- 8
J Fiction- 9
Picture books- 14
Animals in Fic- 26
Baby books- 39

formats
Short stories- 1
Graphic novels- 15

sources
Owned- 58
Library- 87
Review copies- 3

other numbers
Abandoned books- 9
Re-reads- 2

Well, that\’s not quite what I expected, when I began this tallying exercise. I had the impression I was reading more non-fiction this year, but perhaps that\’s just lately. On the other hand, the beginning of the year was heavy with posts on children\’s books, and I read far more of those (with my kids) than I ever write about. So that skews the numbers somewhat. They never add up perfect, because I inadvertently stick some books in one or more categories. I\’m glad that I\’ve continued to read more graphic novels, and have gotten back into some more fun stuff again (fantasy).

I think it\’s funny that I felt I hadn\’t read as much as I used to, but when I look at the totals, it\’s very similar to last year. I guess that just means I never read as much as I want to!

Places I visited via the books: Sweeden, Africa (I don\’t recall which countries exactly), New Zealand, England, Japan, Ireland, Alaska, Scotland

Notable books from my year of reading: by far the funnest one was Rosy is My Relative. Made me laugh so much. One of my favorite non-fiction books was Garden Anywhere, I just loved the spirit of it. In terms of an excellent read, very well-written and rich in character, the best book has to be The Loon Feather. And two books that really caught my notice, made me sit up straight with astonished recognition and indignation, were The World Without Us and The Camera My Mother Gave Me. I recommend all these heartily.

Previous year\’s numbers: 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009
Let\’s see what 2014 brings! Starting off with the Triple Dog Dare.

by Ulrich Schliewen

A very nice book. This one focuses on creating biotope aquariums, where you assemble the same plants and fish that would live together in nature (or as close as you can get to that). It gets very detailed into the topics of water chemistry and the nitrogen cycle, also has lots of information on how various kinds of fishes breed. There\’s a nice diagram on fish anatomy and physical adaptations to different lifestyles in their various habitats. The section on plants was informative, but too brief for my taste, and not enough pictures there. Overall the photographs in the book are excellent. One different feature it had was that the glossary of terms was placed in the center of the book. True, it was easily found because the pages are blue, but I found the placement odd.

The second half of the book highlights many popular (as well some more uncommon and difficult-to-keep) species (over two hundred) and gives the usual data on their needs and care. I browsed through this section, again reading the details on those that would be okay in my particular aquarium, but enjoying the beautiful shapes and colors of all the others, and reading those that had interesting facts (like about the fish that can conduct electricity, or the tetra that deposits its eggs on leaves suspended above the water, or the cichlid that in the wild, eats other fishes\’ eyeballs).

This is one I would definitely consider adding to my own collection. It\’s also a Barron\’s book, but significantly larger and more detailed in both text and photos, than the others I\’ve encountered at the library.

Rating: 4/5    160 pages, 1991

DISCLAIMER:

All books reviewed on this site are owned by me, or borrowed from the public library. Exceptions are a very occasional review copy sent to me by a publisher or author, as noted. Receiving a book does not influence my opinion or evaluation of it

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