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Jaguars and Electric Eels
Jaguars and Electric Eels | Alexander von Humboldt
11 posts | 2 read | 2 to read
A great, innovative and restless thinker, the young Humboldt (1769-1859) went on his epochal journey to the New World during a time of revolutionary ferment across Europe. This part of his matchless narrative of adventure and scientific research focuses on his time in Venezuela - in the Llanos and on the Orinoco River - riding and paddling, restlessly and happily noting the extraordinary things on every hand. Great Journeys allows readers to travel both around the planet and back through the centuries but also back into ideas and worlds frightening, ruthless and cruel in different ways from our own. Few reading experiences can begin to match that of engaging with writers who saw astounding things: Great civilisations, walls of ice, violent and implacable jungles, deserts and mountains, multitudes of birds and flowers new to science. Reading these books is to see the world afresh, to rediscover a time when many cultures were quite strange to each other, where legends and stories were treated as facts and in which so much was still to be discovered.
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Texreader
Jaguars and Electric Eels | Alexander von Humboldt
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Pickpick

I‘ve come to love nonfiction works from authors who‘ve trekked the world thanks to the #readingthecontinents challenges. So I couldn‘t miss this book written about the author‘s journey through #Venezuela from 1798-1804. He was a naturalist so he includes many in-depth descriptions of plants and animals, landscapes and people. He was obviously extremely knowledgeable and tough to deal with the harsh terrains of all sorts. He was sensitive to the ⬇️

Texreader plight of slaves, but less sensitive to some tribes he labeled lazy. But he was fair, too, identifying the good, the bad, the ugly, and the lovely (and sometimes the crazy) about all the people he encountered. One obviously native man insisted he was white and held himself out as so pretentious it was quite comical. Sometimes a bit boring, but overall this was a fascinating peak at a world far distant from our own. #foodandljt @Catsandbooks 2w
Catsandbooks ❤️👏🏼🇻🇪 1w
43 likes2 comments
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Texreader
Jaguars and Electric Eels | Alexander von Humboldt
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Ugh! He described the mosquitos being so thick he couldn‘t see the horizon to take location measurements. Their faces and hands would swell from the biting and poking insects. Just miserable.

#Venezuela #foodandlit @Catsandbooks

Catsandbooks Well that sounds horrible! 2w
31 likes1 comment
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Texreader
Jaguars and Electric Eels | Alexander von Humboldt
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I‘m very curious about what happened in the Andes now!

#Venezuela #foodandlit @Catsandbooks

Susanita Me too! 2w
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Texreader
Jaguars and Electric Eels | Alexander von Humboldt
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Catsandbooks Maybe I should try that... 😂 2w
MaGoose 😆 1w
36 likes2 comments
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Texreader
Jaguars and Electric Eels | Alexander von Humboldt
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In praise of chocolate

#Venezuela #foodandlit @Catsandbooks

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Texreader
Jaguars and Electric Eels | Alexander von Humboldt
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MaGoose Yeah, it seems we're trending away from that. 1w
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Texreader
Jaguars and Electric Eels | Alexander von Humboldt
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In the early 1800s this author/naturalist was trying to tell the world to beware!

#Venezuela #foodandlit @Catsandbooks

Bookwormjillk When will we listen? 2w
33 likes1 comment
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Texreader
Jaguars and Electric Eels | Alexander von Humboldt
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Written in the early 1800s, I appreciate that the author was sensitive to the slaves‘ plight in #Venezuela.

#foodandlit @Catsandbooks

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Texreader
Jaguars and Electric Eels | Alexander von Humboldt
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About the author and the book

#Venezuela #foodandlit @Catsandbooks

blurb
Texreader
Jaguars and Electric Eels | Alexander von Humboldt
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Aimeesue Excellent cover! 3w
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squirrelbrain
Jaguars and Electric Eels | Alexander von Humboldt
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Pickpick

A very short read but no less interesting for that. The author sets off in 1799 to explore the New World, including #venezuela.

He has an interest in biology and geology, but also includes short vignettes of the people he meets and their everyday lives, which are often gently amusing.

The book isn‘t written in an old-fashioned style, but that‘s probably due to the translation from it‘s original French, which I assume was done more recently.

Librarybelle Good choice! 1y
BarbaraBB A hard prompt to have ticked off I think 👍🏽 1y
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