From the Central Park birder who was involved in a 2020 viral racist video, Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World (pub. June 13, 2023) by Christian Cooper, this memoir includes that viral moment, but so much more!
Christian Cooper is an amazing man–after reading this memoir, I wanted to buy a pair of binoculars, travel the world, and march against injustice! I thoroughly enjoyed reading his story and his tips about birding that are also applicable to the rest of life. A self-described blerd, or black nerd, and gay man, Cooper grew up on Long Island, worked for Marvel after Harvard, and was responsible for one of the first openly gay characters in Star Trek comics. He’s climbed to Everest base camp and reconciled with his father after a difficult parental breakup.
Birding served as a refuge as I struggled with being a queer kid in an unwelcoming world, and it simultaneously compounded my Black outsider status while setting my complete and utter nerdiness in immutable concrete.
I wish that it hadn’t taken that 2020 racist incident–him asking a woman to leash her dog, only for her to call 911 and claim that he was threatening her– for him to write this book. It’s full of insight and humor and I annotated many, many quotes.
Even if you are not black, or queer, or pagan, or a birdwatcher (or even if you are some or all of these things), there is something for everyone in Mr. Cooper’s story and memoir. I highly recommend it, and am looking forward to catching his National Geographic channel show Extraordinary Birder, which is supposed to be coming soon.
Also, thankfully, Cooper did steer clear of anti-fat bias. There were only a few mentions of body size or shape, none negative, so I consider this book weight-neutral.
Reading While Fat 