The Big Year by Mark Obmascik
Each year, hundreds of people set out across North America determined to set a new record in a spectacularly competitive event. Is it tennis? Golf? Racing? Poker perhaps? No, it's bird-watching, and a contest known as the Big Year - a grand, gruelling, expensive (and occasionally vicious) 365-day marathon to identify the most species. THE BIG YEAR is the rollicking chronicle of the 275,000-mile odyssey of three unlikely adventurers who take their bird-watching so seriously it nearly kills them. From Texas in pursuit of the Rufus-capped Warbler to British Columbia in search of Xantus' Hummingbird, these obsessive enthusiasts brave roasting deserts, storm-tossed oceans, infested swamps and disgruntled lions (not to mention some of the lumpiest hotel mattresses known to man) as they vie to become North America's number one bird-watcher in what would prove to be the biggest Big Year of them all...In this captivating tour of human and avian nature, of courage and deceit, of passion and paranoia, prize-winning journalist Mark Obmascik reveals the extremes to which Man will go to pursue his dreams, to conquer and to categorize - no matter how low the stakes. Wonderfully funny, acutely observed and hugely entertaining, THE BIG YEAR is a lark of a read.
Mark Obmascik has been a journalist for two decades, most recently at the 'Denver Post', where he was lead writer for the newspaper's Pulitzer Prize in 2000 and winner of the National Press Club Award for environmental journalism in 2003. An obsessed birder himself, he lives in Denver with his wife and sons.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780553815511 |
| ISBN 10 | 0553815512 |
| Title | The Big Year |
| Author | Mark Obmascik |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Transworld Publishers Ltd |
| Year published | 2005-02-01 |
| Number of pages | 320 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |