Book review: The Big Year (Movie tie-in Edition)

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The Big Year: A Tale of Nature, Man, and Fowl Obsession

By Mark Obmascik

In 1998, three birders consisting of Sandy Komito, Al Levatin, and Greg Miller decided to compete in a big year. A big year is where you compete to try to find as many species of birds as one can in the ABA area (mostly North America) in one year.

While I have never competed in a big year myself, this book had brought back many good birding memories. I could relate with the characters in the book, as it made me feel like I was birding with them. It was also cool to read about a birder that I know, fellow Ohio birder Greg Miller!

This book will make you laugh regardless of whether you're a birder or not. While I doubt that many non-birders would pick this book up just as a causal read, I feel that they would be entertained enough to read it all the way through if they did. For those non-birders, you will see just how obsessed us birders are when it comes to seeing good birds.

As most of my readers probably already know, the book has now become a major motion picture!

Whether or not the movie is ornithologically correct or not, I feel that this movie will be a turning point for the future of birding and possibly (hopefully) bird conservation. I have had non-birding friends coming up to me asking what this movie is all about. This is the first time that birding has been in the national mainstream spotlight. That is a GOOD thing!

The Big Year will be opening in theaters everywhere October 14th!

*Disclosure: I had received this book free of charge from the publisher for the purpose of reviewing. The opinions expressed are solely my own. Tweet