The Edge of the Sea

Poetic Science I still live where I grew up. When I was a kid, I could walk down to the end of the street and descend to the rocks by the Atlantic. Though throwing rocks at anything and everything used to occupy most of the time, or else fishing unsuccessfully, I could also investigate the tidal pool......more

Rachel Carson was undoubtedly a spectacular writer, but this is essentially just a collection of descriptions, and no matter how precisely and beautifully written those descriptions are, I can only take so much before my eyes start to glaze over. Maybe I had the wrong expectations for this book goin......more

I bought this book while waiting for a ferry to take me back to the mainland from Cape Lookout. I had just spent the night camping on the beach and woke up early to explore the island. While browsing the small gift shop at the ranger station this book caught my eye. I’ve known about Rachel Carson fo......more

I'm not sure what to make of this book. It's been described as poetic, flowing, lyrical- I don't agree. Whilst there are flashes of literary brilliance throughout and sumptuous descriptions of shore-dwelling life, these are pretty limited. Overall I found the book dry and wooden, like reading a zool......more

The Dewey Decimal system puts this in the 500's - hard science. Sure, yeah, I guess. It struck me more as Carson's love letter to the several ecosystems on the American Atlantic coast. And Carson shows her love by enumerating and describing in grad-student field-notes-level detail all the species fou......more