Floating Gold: A Natural (and Unnatural) History Of Ambergris (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
excellent book. i've read a few books on plain things like salt, and the color red and they were pretty good, they kept you excited about the subject. but i read this book on copper last year that was terrible. the guy decides to write a book on copper and after reading it you just don't care about copper anymore because he made it so boring. he wanders and around and finds nothing. zzz..but why was this book good? i knew NOTHING about ambergris but keep hearing the word bandied around over the decades and always wondered what is that? kinda like frankincense, myrrh, ...or even diplomacy. these are words few people use anymore. so the author mr kemp tells you what he learned and when he walks around all over the place looking for ambergris it's not so boring that you fall asleep. ambergris is not an easy topic. it can look and smell like many things to many people, so it's hard to write about. but this was a very good job. sometimes you go to a party where you have to entertain others apolitcally and you need an interesting non-charged subject to keep the conversation from lilting. this book would be perfect for that. i read this book because of peak oil. soon we will have to do without fossil fuels and so basic things not made in a chem lab will become important - like ambergris, salt, pepper, natural dyes, etc. it's a good time to learn about all the natural things that will be needed soon as we all travel less and use less and create more community while our economy localizes. I read this book because I am interested in whales, especially large whales, and the title was appropriately mysterious. Ambergris is a substance secreted by sperm whales around conglomerations of squid beaks in their intestines, and its value lies in its rareness and its ability to fix scent in perfume. That was all I knew of it before I picked up the book.The book told me much, much more -- ambergris is NOT whale vomit, as is still reported in the news today, but whale poop cured and hardened by rolling around in the sea for years or even decades, its chemical structure morphing as it ages. Because of its rarity, its hunters, buyers, and users are reluctant to speak of it, and this reluctance shapes the book as the author tries again and again to find it or the people who know abou it. The story is in fact more about a search for ambergris than ambergris itself, which made me feel a little cheated. The book gets repetitive in parts with long descriptions of the New Zealand coastline and journeys to various museums. I wish it had been shorter, more authoritative, and more to the point. More information on the sperm whales would not have hurt either.Despite these shortcomings I did enjoy the book and came away knowing more than I did before. If you like whales, by all means read this.
What do You think about Floating Gold: A Natural (and Unnatural) History Of Ambergris (2012)?
Loved it, I'm not just going to look for shells on the beach anymore!! Whale poo!!
—sirmuhammad
A good introduction that was very readable.
—Iareivy
Learned more about the spermatozoa whale.
—CapriAnnLeany
