Non-fiction is hard. It’s hard to be clever and keep your audience’s interest through a couple of hundred pages of science or history, no matter how intriguing the subject matter. For today’s Words of Wisdom, I decided to post a couple of fun quotes from non-fiction. When non-fiction makes you chuckle, you know the writer is skilled.
“I think I’ve always been the kind of person who gets caught up in obsessive quests, most of which seem to involve birds.” The Grail Bird, by Tim Gallagher
“Unicorns cannot exist. By the second quarter of the twentieth century this fact of biology was universally accepted, just in time for everyone to be proved wrong.” The Natural History of Unicorns, by Chris Lavers
“Invariably, Mangrove Cuckoo sightings are made by non-birders, thus proving the life-is-not-fair rule.” Good Birders Don’t Wear White, Chapter 10 “Follow These Rules to See a Mangrove Cuckoo” by Dan and Lillian Stokes
“So no, birding is not a hobby, any more than sneezing is, or Presbyterianism is, or liking the color blue is. It is not something one chooses to do so much as something one cannot help but do.” The Verb ‘To Bird’ by Peter Cashwell
Do you have any to share?