I've really enjoyed reading Amy Stewart's new book, The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms. There's something here for just about everyone. Even if you do not care one whit about earthworms, you'll enjoy her graceful and fluid writing. If you are a would-be Thoreau, pondering the mysteries of existence, the material world and our place in it all, the themes of this book will strike a reverberating chord. If you are curious about earthworms, you'll be amazed at how much information you will absorb—painlessly—about their lives and their world. And if you are predisposed to regard earthworms with affection, you just might find yourself, as I did a few days ago, welcoming a parcel from the postman, courtesy of Happy D Ranch, containing two pounds of real, live Eisenia fetida, the red wiggler.
I especially like how this book points the way to Big Questions with No Easy Answers, in a clear, personable and unpretentious voice. (How much can we say that we really know, when there are phenomena that are impossible for us to investigate? How do we regard the success of a "good" species which comes at the destruction of other "good" species?) I'll value this book for fermenting my thoughts about questions like these long after I've put it down.
The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms. Amy Stewart. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2004. ISBN 1-56512-337-9.
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