Thursday, June 02, 2005

A Primate's Memoir - Read It Now

Example

If you are at all interested in Africa, brain chemistry, travel writing, primates & social relationships (especially baboons), or anthropology, you should read A Primate's Memoir right now. It's an autobiographical story of a primatologist/neuroscientist studying baboons in Kenya, but it is also a coming of age story, a travelogue, and an introduction to primate behavior. Most of all, it's funny and well-written. Amazingly well-written for an academic. In fact, imagine David Sedaris darting baboons with tranquilizer darts, hitching rides on trucks through the Sudan, doing magic tricks for the Kipsigi with dry ice, and you get an idea of the writing.

Here's an interesting interview with the author, Robert Sapolsky, and more about his book. I'm going to add the rest of his stuff to my huge stack of "to read" books right away. I may even buy a hardcover copy to keep after I return my library copy of A Primate's Memoir.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

ok - you sold me with the david sedaris comment---

Arun said...

Nice Review of an Amazing Book by an Extraordinary Author. I too am a big fan of Dr.Sapolsky's book and his work.

Also check out the documentary "Killer Stress", that features extensively on his work.