#bug books

[axels-bugs]

I read the introduction to this book. My attention has been grabbed. Will reblog this once I read more so I can give a proper review of it.

[godzilla-reads]

Library Read: “The Language of Butterflies: How Thieves, Hoarders, Scientists, and Other Obsessives Unlocked the Secrets of the World’s Favorite Insect” by Wendy Williams 🦋

[bugthebard]

do you have any reading recs for someone who wants to learn about bugs?

Oh absolutely! There are so many lovely popular science entomology books. I'll name a few, but there are tons more for specific bugs you might be interested in if you search around! I've got four in mind that I've read that I think provide some nice variety.

Buzz, Sting, Bite by Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson

I so enjoyed this book. It's not about any specific insect, but it's a delightful tour of a bunch of cool adaptations and the like in the arthropod world. I think it'd be a good choice if you're new to the whole thing as it's fun, light, and has lots of different groups represented. I learned about a wild interaction between ground-nesting bees and blister beetles from this one that I ended up making a little video on.

Never Home Alone by Rob Dunn

I love the household ecosystem! This book isn't just arthropods — it also covers bacteria and other organisms you might find in your home. But it's so neat! And tonally it's refreshing because it doesn't attempt to scare you about what's in your house. Rather, it invites you to engage with your fellow home inhabitants.

Honeybee Democracy by Thomas D. Seeley

This is such an interesting deep dive into honey bee behavior. I think a lot of people know bees are smart but don't quite realize how complex their social behavior gets. I also am charmed by any book that includes a chapter on incorporating another animal's behavior as a lesson to our own human society (the last chapter is basically "what can we learn from the voting system of honey bees?", an adorable thought).

The Sting of the Wild by Justin O. Schmidt

The Schmidt pain scale is a bit infamous. Dr. Schmidt made a whole collection of insects sting him, and rated them on a scale based on the pain he felt. With descriptions like "someone has fired a staple into your cheek," it's definitely not the most objective, but it is a good time. And following his journey getting stung by everything (including his grad students that followed in his footsteps in some very funny ways) is entertaining.

[beausbugbiome]

Shopping at Barnes&Noble for buggy-books!! 📚🪲🐝🐞🐛🦋🐜🐌

[todayesterday]

“It was really quite funny,” remembers fellow passenger Pang, who was about to celebrate her 31st birthday. “John goes: ‘Oh my God.’ And he looks in the cab next to him, and who’s in the cab? Paul and Linda! And he rolls down the window and he’s yelling: ‘Hey, Paul! We tried to get you this morning.’ Paul says: ‘We’re on our way to see Lee,’ his father-in-law. And John goes: ‘Yeah, we’re on our way to Capitol.’ Paul goes: ‘Maybe we’ll have dinner later.’” As the two taxis start to move once the traffic begins to flow, Paul and John attempt to keep their conversation going, sticking their heads out the window as they try to make arrangements for later that evening. It is a comical incident and a poignant one. This happened to be one of the last times they’d see each other before Lennon became a father for the second time the following autumn.

— John and Paul in New York, October 1974.

Source: Come Together: Lennon & McCartney in the Seventies, Richard White (2016).

[phoneybeatlemania-bit-the-dust]

Mini life update from me: I just got Cynthia Lennons book (‘John’) out of my local library, so ill be cracking on with that soon! If anything catches my interest ill let you guys know ;)

ALSO I found this other book in the library called ‘I Was There’ where fans just tell about their own interactions with the beatles - I don’t think ill read the whole thing, but ill flick through it and see if I can find anything particularly saucy and let you guys know

I also got a Graham Greene novel out of the library, but this is a Bug blog so I don’t think anyone’s interested in that lol

[idontwanttospoiltheparty]

Speaking of out of print Beatles books, look what arrived in the mail! Yes, May's book DID cost way too much but it was delivered CRAZY fast. The AHDN novelization cost next to nothing though and it basically has to be first edition!

[godzilla-reads]

“The relationship between flowers and insects is of a very close nature, and so necessary is each to the other that if there were no insects many species of plants would die out, and if for even a year there were no flowers then many species of insects would cease to exist.”

—Evelyn Cheesman, Everyday Doings of Insects 🪲🦋🐝🐞🕷🪰