(no subject)

[housecarpenter]

One of my dad's co-workers gave me a bunch of bird field guides from the 1970s!

This is pretty much the perfect Christmas gift. And it's from somebody I don't even know :) (although I guess my dad has been telling him about my interests.)

Comments

[housecarpenter]

Field guides are interesting because they are the best source of the sort of information about organisms that I'm mainly interested in, which is specific details about particular organisms as opposed to general theory. I like to read things which present lots of structured list-type information for me to memorize rather than making me think too much. Field guides can also be seen as artistic works, and it's in this respect that the older ones are better. Older field guides tend to have illustrations rather than photographs, and illustrations are better than photographs because they show the organisms without the extraneous detail that usually accompanies them in photographs, and because I can admire the illustrator's work and use it as a base to copy off to develop my own drawing skills.