16829 Followers
195 Following
LG

Familiar Diversions

I'm a librarian who loves anime, manga, and reading a wide variety of genres.

Currently reading

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom, Vol. 1
Dojyomaru, Fuyuyuki, Sean McCann
Progress: 103/374 pages
Darkly Dreaming Dexter
Jeff Lindsay
Progress: 424/470 minutes
Wait Till Helen Comes: A Ghost Story
Mary Downing Hahn
Progress: 184/184 pages
Parental Guidance
Avery Flynn
Progress: 40 %
An Offer From a Gentleman
Julia Quinn
Progress: 102/358 pages
The Twisted Ones
T. Kingfisher
Progress: 385/385 pages
Educated
Tara Westover
Progress: 315/730 minutes
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Vol. 2
Satoru Yamaguchi, Nami Hidaka
Progress: 24/171 pages
Graphic Medicine Manifesto
MK Czerwiec, Kimberly R. Myers, Scott T. Smith, Michael J. Green, Susan Merrill Squier, Ian Williams
Progress: 26/172 pages
Ao Oni: Mutation
Kenji Kuroda, Karin Suzuragi, Alexander Keller-Nelson
Progress: 30/152 pages

Reading progress update: I've read 12 out of 230 pages.

The Sting of the Wild - Justin O. Schmidt

I hope the organization becomes clearer later on, because right now it feels like a bunch of insect stories that could have been put in any chapter. But they're relatively interesting stories so far. I imagine Schmidt's parents used to despair that he would survive childhood. The few childhood stories he has included make it seem like he spent a lot of time seeking out stinging insects and seeing what they would do under certain circumstances.

 

The page I'm on right now has an interesting tidbit I didn't know: honey bees can identify the scent of mammalian breath and consider it a cue that a potential predator is near the nest. Here's his trick for Africanized honey bees:

 

"The solution to close-range observation was simple: be 'invisible' to the bees. To achieve invisibility in the presence of bees, stop breathing (granted, it is hard to stop breathing entirely for long) and move slowly. Hold your breath as you stand inches to the side of the landing board and then turn your head to exhale gently a few feet behind the hive between breaths." (12-13)

The last sentence confuses me a bit. It sounds like a difficult trick to get the hang of - I wonder how many times he was stung before he picked up the technique?