261 pages
English language
Published Nov. 8, 2015
"In this astonishing book from the author of the bestselling memoir The Good Good Pig, Sy Montgomery explores the emotional and physical world of the octopus--a surprisingly complex, intelligent, and spirited creature--and the remarkable connections it makes with humans. Sy Montgomery's popular 2011 Orion magazine piece, "Deep Intellect," about her friendship with a sensitive, sweet-natured octopus named Athena and the grief she felt at her death, went viral, indicating the widespread fascination with these mysterious, almost alien-like creatures. Since then Sy has practiced true immersion journalism, from New England aquarium tanks to the reefs of French Polynesia and the Gulf of Mexico, pursuing these wild, solitary shape-shifters. Octopuses have varied personalities and intelligence they show in myriad ways: endless trickery to escape enclosures and get food; jetting water playfully to bounce objects like balls; and evading caretakers by using a scoop net as a trampoline and running around the floor …
"In this astonishing book from the author of the bestselling memoir The Good Good Pig, Sy Montgomery explores the emotional and physical world of the octopus--a surprisingly complex, intelligent, and spirited creature--and the remarkable connections it makes with humans. Sy Montgomery's popular 2011 Orion magazine piece, "Deep Intellect," about her friendship with a sensitive, sweet-natured octopus named Athena and the grief she felt at her death, went viral, indicating the widespread fascination with these mysterious, almost alien-like creatures. Since then Sy has practiced true immersion journalism, from New England aquarium tanks to the reefs of French Polynesia and the Gulf of Mexico, pursuing these wild, solitary shape-shifters. Octopuses have varied personalities and intelligence they show in myriad ways: endless trickery to escape enclosures and get food; jetting water playfully to bounce objects like balls; and evading caretakers by using a scoop net as a trampoline and running around the floor on eight arms. But with a beak like a parrot, venom like a snake, and a tongue covered with teeth, how can such a being know anything? And what sort of thoughts could it think? The intelligence of dogs, birds, and chimpanzees was only recently accepted by scientists, who now are establishing the intelligence of the octopus, watching them solve problems and deciphering the meaning of their color-changing camouflage techniques. Montgomery chronicles this growing appreciation of the octopus, but also tells a love story. By turns funny, entertaining, touching, and profound, The Soul of an Octopus reveals what octopuses can teach us about consciousness and the meeting of two very different minds"--
I can think of no better title for this book. Sy dives into the personality and lives of octopuses. They clearly have souls, perhaps multiple souls; they play, they dream, and everything in between. This book is well worth your time, come meet the people who live under the sea.
This one wasn't for me. I just ended up feeling so sorry for the octopuses in this book, captured, imprisoned, dying miserable in captivity in an aquarium for profit. I keep forgetting to not read books about animals written by nonvegans. Some bits were OK.
There was a bit too much of subjectivity projected as objective in this book for my taste. It's lovely and well written book, but somehow often a bit superficial. I am eager to know more about octopus intelligence, but there was a lot of anectodal evidence and subsequent speculation here and too little hard-core science. I possibly had bigger expectations.
Not what I was hoping for from the title. More a description of a fun set of experiences with octopuses than an exploration of consciousness and what we know about octopus cognition.
Not what I was hoping for from the title. More a description of a fun set of experiences with octopuses than an exploration of consciousness and what we know about octopus cognition.
Fantastisches Buch!
I love octopuses. I think they are fascinating. I've never had the chance to meet one though like this author did. She got to know three octopuses over the course of a few years. It was amazing to hear about the ways their physiology lets them interact with the world. They can taste with their skin, camouflage even though they are color blind, and work through complex puzzles.She also lets you get to know the people working behind the scenes in the aquarium who love these animals.This book is wonderful for anyone who is interested in finding out more about these animals. I am looking forward to reading more from this author.Plastic pollution in the ocean is a huge problem but it doesn't manifest in exactly the ways that it has been portrayed in the press. Most of the ocean is polluted with microparticles of plastic that …
I love octopuses. I think they are fascinating. I've never had the chance to meet one though like this author did. She got to know three octopuses over the course of a few years. It was amazing to hear about the ways their physiology lets them interact with the world. They can taste with their skin, camouflage even though they are color blind, and work through complex puzzles.She also lets you get to know the people working behind the scenes in the aquarium who love these animals.This book is wonderful for anyone who is interested in finding out more about these animals. I am looking forward to reading more from this author.Plastic pollution in the ocean is a huge problem but it doesn't manifest in exactly the ways that it has been portrayed in the press. Most of the ocean is polluted with microparticles of plastic that make any clean up operation almost impossible. The author's goal is to require companies to take on more of the burden for reusing or recycling plastics they produce. Now they are freed from responsibility by requiring consumers to recycle if they don't want the plastic going into a landfill.This book used the framework of the several month journey on Junk to tell the story of the Earth's plastic pollution problem. It is full of ideas for making the problem better but there needs to be buy in from a lot of people to make it happen.The stories in the book are scary. So much damage is being done through human carelessness. Getting the word out about what needs to be done is important.This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story
More sentimental and anecdotal than scientific, Montgomery's tale of establishing relationships with mollusks may have you feeling warm and shedding salty tears for these cold-blooded invertebrates, as well as raising questions about aquarium practices.
This is a great book, the kind of book that should be written more often, and that we should be reading more often. It explores the natural mysteries around life in the ocean, and focuses on the author's experience with octopuses. As I read this book, I realized that I knew nothing about underwater life, and I developed a deep respect for the octopus.
My favorite thing about this book is that this is the kind of writing that exposes the writer's love and life-long passion for her field - and reading it will inspire budding naturalists and marine-life lovers to follow their dreams.
This book is more a memoir including some facts and many subjective observations about octopuses than it is a scientific look at octopuses. As such it's an interesting memoir and a fascinating picture of the personalities of a number of different octopuses that the author meets, as well as several aquarium staff members. It certainly highlighted how intelligent these creatures are, how little we still know about them, and it certainly made me want to go visit some octopuses in an aquarium.
However, if you're looking for any depth of scientific fact or even any depth of philosophical discussion, the book is rather lacking in this department. The author seems to spend some time justifying to herself that it's ok to keep octopuses in captivity -- even when they may occasionally tragically die accidentally -- without really examining the details of both sides of the argument. It feels as if …
This book is more a memoir including some facts and many subjective observations about octopuses than it is a scientific look at octopuses. As such it's an interesting memoir and a fascinating picture of the personalities of a number of different octopuses that the author meets, as well as several aquarium staff members. It certainly highlighted how intelligent these creatures are, how little we still know about them, and it certainly made me want to go visit some octopuses in an aquarium.
However, if you're looking for any depth of scientific fact or even any depth of philosophical discussion, the book is rather lacking in this department. The author seems to spend some time justifying to herself that it's ok to keep octopuses in captivity -- even when they may occasionally tragically die accidentally -- without really examining the details of both sides of the argument. It feels as if the book COULD have been much more than just a memoir, so it's disappointing in that sense. And if you really don't care about the personal thoughts and philosophizing of the author then you'll probably find it annoying. But, if you're interested in octopuses, stories about them, and random tidbits of science and information, then you may still enjoy this book. Certainly, the more people become interested in learning more about these creatures, the better; so go pick up the book if you think you might like to learn more.
