I liked the subject matter, but not the delivery. I tried for fifty pages and then kept thinking about other books I’d rather be reading instead. Looked at some other reviews online to see if it might get better, or was it my own lack of focus, but a lot of people agreed with me: this book is scattered and jumpy. It’s full of jokes and odd asides and pop culture references (which usually don’t do much for me). The jokes would be fine, except they’re crammed in there, every few sentences it felt like, so I’d forget what I was actually supposed to be reading about. The footnotes sometimes add useful or interesting information, but just as often they are more attempts at humor. Which reminded me too much of Mud Season, and that’s not a good thing. It’s when I saw another reader compare this author’s writing style to Mary Roach that I realized my hunch was right: ditch this one. There’s much better books on insects out there, if I really want to learn something. Also, it seems to be more focused on the oddities of people who study insects, than the curiosities and marvels of the insects themselves. Not for me.
What I did glean from those fifty pages: the efficiency of ant colonies mapping out pathways, inspired some computer algorithms for internet connections to avoid congestion and slowdowns. Insects are sensitive to the Earth’s magnetic field (it wasn’t explained what they do with that, but I assume it’s for navigation). An insect’s brain may be the size of a pinhead, but it’s complex and packed with so many neurophils that it took a team of arthropod neuroscientists twenty-five meetings over almost ten years, to map out the separate regions. Disappointing, all the tiresome bits I wasn’t interested in, to read through to the good stuff. I wish I had the patience for that, but I don’t right now.
Borrowed from the public library. Back it goes!