A Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year
 
"The most compulsively readable of a clutch  of bird-themed books out this autumn. Taking in everything from classic nature-writing  to poetry via folklore and Mayan creation myths, The Bedside Book Of Birds is by  no means for 'twitchers' only."
—Daily Mail (London)
 
"The perfect book for armchair  ornithologists with an eye for words as well as feathers."
—The Daily Telegraph (London)
 
"A wonderful collection of poetry and prose, folk tales and myths, which pay tribute  to our feathered friend. . . . A perfect Christmas present, even for non-anoraks."
—Mail on Sunday (UK)
 
"Anyone who has watched birds, studied them, given them the  least attention,will find this a treat. It is a compilation of writings that celebrate  themany ways people have engaged with birds - made companions of them,mythologised  them, hunted and eaten them. There's an account of a mocking thrush drinking from  Charles Darwin's hand on the voyage of the Beagle, and of a woman in Ohio who incubated  50 hens' eggs by laying them alongside the body of her dying, fevered husband. This  book is well worth buying for the illustrations alone."
—New Scientist
 
"The beauty  of the writing and the illustrations contained in The Bedside Book of Birds is matched  by the beauty of the physical book itself. Great pains have been taken by the author  and the publisher to make this book a work of art, and they have succeeded marvellously."
—The Globe and Mail
 
"The most spectacular bird book of the year."
—The Globe and  Mail
 
"An astoundingly beautiful book . . . featur[ing] some of the most sublime  writings to be found on the subject."
—The Globe and Mail
 
“The Bedside Book of Birds is a superb gift, a compulsive must-have, for the bird-lover, the storyteller, and  the anthropologist in the family.  As a collection it is exemplary of how fascination  can re-order the world.  Readers will be thinking feathered thoughts for days and  they will be happier.”
—The Calgary Herald
 
“This book in the hand is worth two on  the shelf.”
—The Calgary Herald
 
“A beautiful volume, sumptiously illustrated.”
—The  Vancouver Sun
 
“[Gibson]’s book is a stunner. The wealth of imagery and the range  of intelligence are grand, the kinds of relationships with birds he sets out nearly  bewildering…. It’s what I’ll take to bed tonight to incite my dreams.”
—Barry Lopez
 
"Gibson's own graceful and erudite essays tell of the pleasure, fear, confusion,  or hope that birds inspire, and their imperiled place in nature."
—The Oprah Magazine
 
"Gibson's preambles are as satisfying as the texts and accompanying illustrations."
—Library Journal