I found "Fingers in the Sparkle Jar" in one of those mesh bins where they put all the books they can't sell and they hope some halfwit will buy one of them for 99p. So I thought ... OK, maybe the approx 10% bad reviews of it on Amazon were wrong. So I've quarantined it for a while, and yesterday I read some of it. And I didn't like it at all ..... it rambles along, half the time you can't even tell what he's on about, it's full of teenage angst, there are lots of passages where I couldn't work out who was talking ...... over several bits of reading, I got more and more annoyed with a sea of over-indulgent, massively over-introspective misery memoirs. One thing it won't do ... it won't improve your birding one iota ! Not a jot. In fact, I suspect it would put any young beginner right off the whole idea. And that's all very sad, because I've liked all his previous stuff. But here's a " critical" Amazon review of it ... I'm not the only one who's very disappointed ... Before I start, I must emphasise that I am a fan of Chris Packham. He is a great presenter, full of empathy and unfailing enthusiasm for the natural world. I am also a fan of wildlife programmes and Chris' presence and skills on the many programmes he has fronted makes me fairly comfortable with the concept that he may well be the natural successor to David Attenborough (though hopefully not for a long time in the future!). I assumed that this book would be an autobiography, which was why I bought it. Unfortunately, it was absolutely not. It couldn't be further from it. This book is terrible. I started to read the Introduction but. after pages and paged of boringly wordy nonsense about ladybirds and ice creams, I moved on to Chapter One, which was no better. The Author's decision to use a dozen words where two or three would have sufficed prompted me to move on again, to Chapter Two. Yet more obscure rambling. I checked a couple more chapters but, alas, they were all relentlessly boring, obscure and self indulgent. Very disappointingly, I couldn't find any indication of his talent and expertise. I wanted to hear about his motivation, his passion for his subject and enthusiastic imparting of his huge knowledge (think Spring Watch/Autumn Watch/Winter Watch). But none of it was there. Just convoluted description and endless obscure verbosity. Even the Acknowledgements were over-effusive and self indulgent. I understand his limiting difficulties but surely some extensive but friendly editing would not have come amiss. This is the first time in nine years of Kindle reading (covering hundreds of books) that I have awarded only one star, which is something I really regret. But I'm afraid it's justified. If you are thinking of buying this book, don't. Sorry Chris. But I'll continue to hold you in high regard and enjoy watching you on TV. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Time for a beautiful song to cheer us up .....
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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