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Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants | |||||||
 
| 80% Recommended by our customers. Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Catalog: Book Release date: 2005-03-24 Media: Paperback Number of pages: 256 Ean: 9781582344775 Book Isbn: 1582344779  Tip: compare prices with similar booksAuthor:
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| User Reviews: |
 Written on May 29, 2006 Summary: More Observation, Less History When I heard the author interviewed on All Things Considered a couple years ago, the book was made out to be mainly a wildlife "documentary" about the life of rats in New York City. While there is that, the book is mostly about the history of rats in NYC, the history of exterminating, and the stories of nearly forgotten New Yorkers whose stories were intertwined with that of rats. Most of the stories were very interesting, but the observation of alley rats was what I wanted to read about more than anything, and of that there is precious little. The book was fairly well written, to be sure, but not exactly what I thought it would be.  Written on April 10, 2006 Summary: Great read! this is an awesome book! It is totally intriguing and informative. I enjoyed every word! Written on March 30, 2006 Summary: The Walt Whitman of Rats Author Robert Sullivan is the laureate of NYC's misnomered rattus norvegicus - they actually come from Denmark (or so I learned from Mr. Sullivan). His year long study watching the rodents of Eden Alley gives us some rather impassioned prose as to the place of rats in the urban scheme of things, a collection of tidbits about rats in general, entertaining thumbnails about the people who make their livings hunting and killing them, a smattering of plague, and one rather odd chapter about the Liberty Pole that seems to belong in another book. "Rats," falls somewhere between the ponderous "Salt," by Mark Kurlansky, and the hugely entertaining "Stiff," by Mary Roach. It told me as much as I really wanted to know about rats, but the wit ran out as the prose ran purple. One thing for sure, the thought of rats fornicating just out of sight of wherever I happen to be gives me the willies. "Rats," is a generally entertaining read, with a cover design that's worth the price of the book. Written on March 4, 2006 Summary: What an odd and great read!! Come on! Who in their right mind would seriously study scurrying rats in the middle of the night in creepy New York City alleyways and then travel across the county interviewing "big time" rat catchers? But who in their right mind would want to read this? ME! It was a most entertaining and fascinating read, I totally admit. And the author dribbled in little bits of highly literate references that show us he is no ordinary fool along with an interesting analysis and perspective. I think the book was a total hoot and I can only hope to read his next perspective on something unique and oddly interesting. I heard the author interviewed on PBS radio and knew from that interview that it was going to be a fascinating subject. I was not disappointed by following up. Get a copy if only to be able to chat about rat activities at your next cocktail party and buy one as a gift for your friend (or perhaps anonymously for your favorite enemy). Written on February 8, 2006 Summary: Learning About One of Nature's Nastiest Creatures Author Robert Sullivan is a man fascinated by these nocturnal creatures known as rats. He devoted much of his time to observing rats in the alleys of New York City so he could include his adventures in the chapters of this book. He educates the reader about rats, talks about how fascinating they are, and points out the difficulty in controlling the rat population. I must admit, besides knowing that rats can carry diseases, are aggressive, and can cause great damage to the food supply, I didn't really know a whole lot about these pesky rodents. I purchased this book with the hope of broadening my reading (I don't normally read about subjects like this) horizons and learning more than I ever knew before about these furry little critters that seem to eat everything in sight and cause so much fear to so many people. Now that I am finished with the book, I can say that I understand rats a little better than I did before, but not much. Sullivan gives some good information about rats, but he gets too wound up talking about things that aren't really that important to gaining a better understanding of the subject matter. When the book is discussing the subject of rats, it fulfills its task quite nicely. For example, I knew that rats caused extensive damage to food and crops. But I did not know that rats are responsible for destroying approximately 33 percent of the world's food supply. That's a lot of food! I also didn't realize that rats are responsible for causing 25 percent of all fires and 18 percent of all phone cable disruptions. And I was relieved to hear that the old "one rat for every one man" statistic is a myth. There are not really this many rats on the planet. If there were, rats would (literally) be eating everyone out of house and home. The actual ratio is more in the neighborhood of 30 to 1 (humans to rats). The book explains how this legendary myth came to pass. These facts are all spelled out in the book, and they (and others like them) are often fascinating to learn. Where the book gets a little too sidetracked is when it starts to talk about the author's adventures in the alleys of New York City. It's fine that the author wanted to conduct live observations of rats in action and it was a good idea for inclusion in this type of book. But what I don't like is the amount of time he spends talking about the scenario itself and about his own infatuation with rats. I would rather hear more hard facts than read about how he positioned himself and how much he loves the subject of rats. We already know he likes the subject- he would have to enjoy it very much to do what he did and write a book about it. Eliminating this area of the writing and replacing it with pure, experimental observations mixed in with scientific facts here and there would make for more compelling reading material. Another thing that bothered me a little bit was the sloppy arrangement of the chapters and discussion. Take a look at the titles of the chapters ("food", "fights", "garbage", "trapping" and other single word titles), if you get the chance. Not only are they unoriginal, but the subject matter discussed within doesn't really flow in any particular order. There are several chapters that could be moved around that would make for a better book, chronologically speaking, and others that could probably be eliminated completely without taking anything away from the useful material found in this book. "Rats" is the type of book that will give many the creeps. Unlike mice, which have an almost benign nature and cute appearance, rats are often aggressive and nasty- ready to attack if provoked and ready to do battle with their human counterparts over food if the need arises. Many people react to a surprise visit with a rat with shock and horror. But there is much to be learned about these nasty, disease- carrying, food- destroying creatures. And "Rats" is fairly successful at delivering its message about rats by explaining where they live, how they interact, their relationship with humans, and the difficulties to keep them under control. I'm going to give this book a small recommendation because I did come away from the reading experience with a slightly better understanding of rats and their behavior. But this book could/should have been better than it turned out to be. A little more attention to the subject matter and less attention to the author's own fascination with rats would have improved this book considerably. |
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| Our price | $10.17 | $10.85 | $10.29 | $10.17 | $11.20 | $9.35 |
| List price | $14.95 | $15.95 | $16.00 | $14.95 | $14.00 | $16.00 |
| Lowest used price | $2.98 | $6.75 | $4.93 | $5.89 | $4.48 | $7.85 |
| Lowest new price | $4.99 | $8.43 | $8.85 | $8.25 | $4.79 | $8.70 |
| Collectible price | $14.95 | - | $22.50 | - | - | - |
| Catalog | Book | Book | Book | Book | Book | Book |
| Release date | 2005-03-24 | 2002-04-01 | 2003-01-28 | 2007-01-09 | 2007-10-10 | 2007-08-28 |
| Media | Paperback | Paperback | Paperback | Paperback | Paperback | Paperback |
| Number of pages | 256 | 216 | 498 | 336 | 256 | 464 |
| Ean | 9781582344775 | 9781865085197 | 9780142001615 | 9780345476395 | 9780802143280 | 9780143038580 |
| Book Isbn | 1582344779 | 1865085197 | 0142001619 | 0345476395 | 0802143288 | 0143038583 |
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