life list

tags: birding, bird watching, birds, Life List: A Woman's Quest for the World's Most Amazing Birds, Olivia Gentile, book review I've written book reviews for most of my adult life, mostly because I liked talking about the books I've read but rarely found an audience, and also because I found this to be a great way to learn about interesting books that other people were reading. Since I've written a public blog for nearly five years, it was natural that I would publish my reviews on my blog, a practice that ended up adding a substantial number of books to my shelves at a time when I was…
Talitiainen (Great Tit), Parus major. Photographed in Hietaniemen hautausmaa (Hietaniemi cemetery), Helsinki, Finland. Image: GrrlScientist, 24 November 2008 [larger view]. Now that I am on the plane, returning to the USA, I will share my revised list of birds seen in the Helsinki area of Finland during my three visits (8 days in November 2008, 3 weeks in February/March 2009, and 3 weeks in July 2009); Helsinki Finland Bird List (new Life List bird species that I first saw in Finland are denoted with red asterix): *Pikku-uikku (Little Grebe), Tachybaptus ruficollis -- November 2008…
BBC Book Meme As seen everywhere. BBC Book List Apparently the BBC reckons most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. Instructions: 1) Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read. (I'll bold those I've read and italicize those of which I only read part.) 2) Add a '+' to the ones you LOVE. 3) Star (*) those you plan on reading. My list is below the fold. 1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen* 3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte X 4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling X+ 5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee X 6 The Bible 7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte* 8 Nineteen Eighty…