December 2 - December 8, 1999 Culture Shock Artsy-fartsy news, views and spews. Performance Review Merry Christmas, 6457 Harold Pinter's The Hothouse at the Vortex Theatre Art Pics Third Annual Silent Art Auction at the Harwood Art Pics Mariachi Christmas at Popejoy Hall Art Pics Becoming Birds & Fish at the New Mexico State Fairgrounds Book Review ReJoyce Edna O'Brien's James Joyce Speed Reader Devil's Hatband by Daniel Aragón y Ulibarrí Speed Reader Jumping the Green by Leslie Schwartz Speed Reader History of Paradise by Margaret Cezair-Thompson Arts and Literature Calendar See, we told you art isn't a dead medium Speed Reader (November 25, 1999) Speed Reader (November 25, 1999) Speed Reader (November 18, 1999)

An Exhilaration of Wings: The Literature of Birdwatching
edited by Jen Hill (Viking, hardcover, $25.95)

All right, Alibi readers. All of us who are closet birdwatchers, come out loud and proud! In fact, I suggest we pack a picnic lunch and our field glasses this weekend and head down to Bosque del Apache for some world class birding. Oh, and let's be sure to bring a copy of An Exhilaration of Wings for the ride.

This superb collection of fragments and excerpts is drawn mainly from British and American birding literature of the last 250 years (thereby omitting such non-Western classics as Faruddin al-Attar's fascinating allegory, Conference of the Birds). Editor Jen Hill has provided an informative introductory essay on the history of the genre. Like birdwatching itself, birding literature has long been the domain of amateurs. But those amateurs have produced enough quality writing to inspire the likes of Wordsworth, Thoreau and Emerson to make their own contributions.

This book is smartly organized by themes such as "Migration," "Nests" and "Birdsong." It makes for excellent browsing. The collection even provides some useful anecdotes on getting started as a birdwatcher. The chapter entitled "Extinction" makes for rather painful reading when one realizes that we've been watching species disappear for centuries. The dedicated birder can take vicarious pleasure in the rare sightings of others, and the literature lover will find charming poetic descriptions: "Like some people, [the catbird] seems to give up his time to the pleasure of hearing himself talk. ... With lazy self-indulgence he sits by the hour with relaxed muscles, and listlessly drooping wings and tail. If he were a young man you feel confident he would sit in shirtsleeves at home and go on the street without a collar." (Florence Merriam, Birds Through an Opera Glass, 1889)

My only complaint is that the book has surprisingly few illustrations. Nonetheless, it will make a fine addition to the library of any birder or admirer of nature writing.