The Bedside Book of Birds: An Avian Miscellany

Sandy Campbell is a reference librarian in the Science and Technology Library at the University of Alberta.

Graeme Gibson has spent 15 years gathering literary excerpts about
birds. The result is a delightful collection of bird experiences. The
voices are varied and range from Marco Polo to Gabriel Garcнa Mбrquez.
The materials come from traditional folk tales, essays, novels, works of
antiquity, journals, and poems. The presence and roles of the birds are
as diverse as birds themselves.

Though loosely arranged around the different kinds of human
relationships with birds, the entries can be enjoyed individually. Some
are fewer than 50 words; others are several pages long, detailing
complex relationships between birds and people. All are brief enough to
be read before you drift off to sleep.

The design of the book is interesting and attractive. Many of the pages
are dull green or buff. Interspersed throughout the text are images of
birds drawn from a variety of artists and cultures. Many are from the
19th century, giving the book a look and feel reminiscent of Victorian
natural-history works.

Sometimes Gibson’s selections present birds in well-known works, such
as Sir Walter Scott’s Proud Maisie. Other selections show birds in
places that I had not ever imagined; for example, “Birds on the
Western Front” is a wartime description of birds that survived and
nested in a battle zone.

Some bird species, such as the raven, occur more frequently than
others, perhaps because they are present in many cultures or have
historically played an important cultural role. But the passages
describe many birds: owls, linnets, sparrows, fighting cocks, parrots.

The most remarkable thing about the book is simply its collection and
compilation. Even someone who reads widely would probably not stumble
across all of these passages in a lifetime of reading.