Subject: bird books and bookstores
Date: Oct 8 03:34:55 2001
From: Gary Bletsch - garybletsch at yahoo.com


Dear Tweeters,
The bookstore thread makes me look from both sides.
I agree that a purchase over the Internet saves gas,
and can thus be viewed as a good choice. On the other
hand, not to sound patronizing, but I also like
patronizing small, family-run businesses instead of
chains--whether they are shoe shops, restaurants, or
booksellers. For example, I went out of my way last
summer to buy dress shoes in the dying downtown of a
rust-belt city. The third-generation Italian-American
cobbler was great--he found me some wonderful cordovan
Florsheims that had been discontinued and left
collecting dust on a high shelf.
On the other hand, I just returned from a quick
trip to Greece, where I was able to squeeze in some
birding in between meetings. Fool that I am, I had
assumed that I could find "Where to Find Birds in
Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus" in the local Athenian
bookstores. I was wrong. I had to purchase "The Birds
of Greece" instead. That is a wonderful book, but not
a birdfinding guide. It also cost me about double what
the birdfinding guide would have. A month ago, I was
too lazy to go online and order the book from ABA
Sales or one of the big general-purpose outfits; that
mistake caused me to miss some birds. All I could do
was read up on habitat in "The Birds of Greece" and
try to hit as many likely-looking spots as I could.
That is a wonderful way to bird, actually, but when
you are on a very short trip and have a list of
species to seek--species you may never get the chance
to see again--you really want a birdfinding guide. As
it ended up, I managed to find the Penduline Tit in
Schinias and the Western Rock Nuthatch on Mt. Pedeli;
I missed all the other species I had been trying for.
Most trying of all, I missed the Sombre Tit, a
patchily distributed species that has always evaded
me. You really don't have much chance to find that one
by guesswork.
The independent bookstores are great--just like
patchily-distributed Sombre Tits and White-headed
Woodpeckers of our world. On the other hand, the
megabookstores can also be great--just like the
not-so-patchy Starlings and House Sparrows.

Respectfully,
Gary Bletsch



=====
Gary Bletsch
Yanbu International School
PO Box 30039
Yanbu al-Sinaiyah, Saudi Arabia
mail to: garybletsch at yahoo.com

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