Sunday with the Penguins

I just spent my Sunday with the Penguins. After reading a couple of scientific books I wanted a little more light reading, so I got a book from the library with lots of beautiful pictures and just the basic information. I read all through it yesterday and enjoyed myself. I learned some new things about penguins, and was reminded of many other things. I'm beginning to understand them a lot better, and now I can actually remember a few facts.

I'm also reading about Scott now, Ranulph Fiennes book about the "Race to the Pole". Fiennes isn't as hard on Scott as some others are. He has a different kind of understanding maybe, because he's been there and he has first-hand knowledge of the terrain.

I never really know what to think of Scott, he is so full of contradictions. He was a naval officer, a man who rapidly made a career for himself, and he did get a lot right. But in the end he got things wrong. I don't know if he simply made too many mistakes, or if he just got unlucky.

I'm actually a chaotic reader at the moment. I'm also in the middle of "Cherry", Sarah Wheeler's biography of Apsley Cherry-Garrard, and I'm reading David Campbell's "The Crystal Desert". Campbell's book is pretty broad, it has history, geology. ecology and biology, and all told in a way that isn't too hard to read.