Supremely Bad Idea: Three Mad Birders and Their Quest to See It All by Luke Dempsey

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(Hardcover)

Reader Rating: (6 ratings)

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  • Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
  • Pub. Date: July 2008
  • ISBN-13: 9781596913554
  • Sales Rank: 111,242
  • 272pp
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Paperback - Reprint$11.25
 
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Synopsis


“Riotously funny, utterly enthralling…Dempsey’s a hoot.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune

It began innocently enough, when two eccentric guests at L uke Dempsey’s weekend home pointed out a small bird flitting through his garden. Dempsey, entranced, found himself falling head over heels. Before he knew it, he and his friends were off on an epic birding journey down the backroads of America, in search of the country’s rarest and most beautiful birds. A Supremely Bad Idea is the hilarious story of their trip—what WildBird magazine calls “as close as we have to Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods.”

Henry T. Armistead - Library Journal

Dempsey, a transplanted Brit and editor in chief of Hudson Street Press, entertainingly recounts his passion for bird watching as he meanders with two birder friends to birding hot spots in Florida, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, Washington State, Michigan, New Jersey, and New York's Central Park, enjoying misadventures and good times along the way. Dempsey is not averse to using occasional obscenities as well as beautifully turned phrases by way of contrast. His picaresque account features several quirky recurring leitmotifs: peculiar signage encountered in his travels, the author's like or dislike of tomatoes and their end products, his divorce and two daughters, and his confrontations with rude people. To one very overweight, obnoxious family he quips as a parting shot, "Have you considered salads?" Dempsey can also be informative and engagingly partisan, as when he describes complex ecological problems such as those found in the Everglades. Throughout, the book is imbued with his appreciation of the wonders, beauty, and fragility of the natural world. A bit lightweight for hard-core birders, this should appeal to general readers interested in nature. Recommended for larger public libraries.

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Biography


Luke Dempsey is the editor in chief of Hudson Street Press, a division of Penguin USA. He lives in New York City. This is his first book.

Customer Reviews

Great and funny readby Anonymous

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March 06, 2009: This is a very funny book with alot of helpful information on birds. I, myself, am a birder and while reading this book, I was inspired to just get out and look in my own backyard instead of wishing for something big at the popular birding sites. Re: the author not liking people very much, I find that to be a very shallow take on his humor. When you spend so much time with people and in such close quarters, there are certain quirks that you notice, he notes these quirks with a very dry sense of humor which is part of the hilarity of the book. Also, "the pregnants", I couldn't have said it better myself! :)

A Supremely Bad Idea is a great read!by TSlush

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December 29, 2008: I liked this book a lot. Almost enough to pick up a pair of binoculars and see for myself if birds could actually become an obsession. Mr. Dempsey does have a particularly snarky sense of humor-so if you take offense easy you are going to miss some of the gems of the book--for instance, his gentle pokes at his friends, himself, and the "pregnants."
His righteous indignation over perceived slights is hilarious...I can almost see his man cape unfurling to right the wrongs...A great read!


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