I have a great love of cephalopods, and this book only further stoked that fire within me. Octopuses are a fascinating species, and one that is still not all that well understood in site of the millenia that we have spent alongside them. It's amazing to me that such an important species is so little understood, and further, that there is still such debate over what intelligence might lurk behind its eyes. So much has been proven over time, and still, so many people continue to doubt.

The Reaktion series of books seeks to bring a new approach to natural history. They seek to incorporate the evolution of the animal in question, the myths surrounding it, popular conception, as well as the latest in scientific research. Personal anecdotes litter these series. The result is that at the end of each book you feel you've a better understanding of the species in question. Books such as [b: Hedgehog|2967752|The Elegance of the Hedgehog|Muriel Barbery|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347755370s/2967752.jpg|1531887] and [b: Woodpecker|9566|Still Life with Woodpecker|Tom Robbins|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1308749778s/9566.jpg|1105809] offered an enormous amount of mythology and curiosities, whereas [b: Vulture|1723385|The Vulture|Gil Scott-Heron|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1358186992s/1723385.jpg|1720780] needled in on the cultural importance of the animal and how dire their situation remains. [b: Octopus|27276262|Lily and the Octopus|Steven Rowley|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1499086357s/27276262.jpg|45476016], I hoped, would be similar. Instead, a distressing amount was devoted to cooking the species and offering up several recipes.. even while acknowledging how overfished many are. That put me off a bit.

While acknowledging the cooking and consumption of octopuses is important, I felt odd about the relish with which that topic was approached while simultaneously acknowledging the level of intelligence inherent in the species and the need for better fishing practices. I would have preferred space given to the film Arrival in addition to the horror shows octopuses still star in, and more attention paid to various steps in the right direction we are taking to help the animal. Something a bit more positive than simply consuming it would have been welcome... ( )

The silver-blue cover, with its sophisticated type treatment was almost as alluring as the topic. If you (or your kids or nieces and nephews) are fascinated by natural history and some special branch on the animal family tree, one of these Animal series books published by London-based Reaktion Books may be just the ticket. Lively biographies of 70 animals from Albatross to Wolf have been published so far—a diverse array that includes ant, cockroach, crocodile, gorilla, lobster, moose, parrot, and trout.

You’ll want to take a peek at them first though. I wasn’t surprised by the book’s many intriguing facts about octopuses (and their cephalopod relatives), like about their decentralized brains, about how laboratory octopuses sometimes dismantle their tanks—suicide, actually—and outsmart their keepers, about how they are caught and processed and cooked, and about their millennia-long role in art and fiction, the malevolent force behind many fictional sea disasters. What I did not expect to learn was that octopuses have a firm place in erotic art (Octopussy, anyone?). This tradition was perhaps most prominent in Japanese art, including the famous erotic woodcut, The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife. ( )