In the Company of Crows and Ravens Book

Basically, this book was not as interesting as it should have been, given the subject matter. Corbids are fascinating on a bad day. Some species use tools (some even make their own), they can recognise their own reflection as themself, they're sociable with weird rituals, many species adapt brilliantly. They talk in distinctive ways and have been known to name people. They survive in deserts and the Arctic and every where in between.

More than that, they're part of human culture and mythology around the world. Myths about them, positive and negative, abound. They make the world, they steal the sun, they ferry souls to the afterlife, they lie and cheat and save.

So a book about them should not be a struggle to read.

The book isn't anecdotal enough to be easy read, but it's not sharp enough to be interesting scientifically. There are interesting bits in it, but not enough and you wade through words to get to them. Stuff on the language is interesting, myths around the world, different types of corbids and different adaptations (crows in Japan using cars to crack nuts, for example), mating, behaviour-- it's all fascinating stuff.

The problem is, you're reading the authors when really, what you want to read is the birds.