The Soul of an Octopus: A Journey into the Wonder-Filled World of Sy Montgomery

Amazon Customer: Arrived quickly in condition as advertised.

Canada on Nov 08, 2023

J. V. Miller: A very good read and arrived several days ahead of the scheduled delivery.

United States on Oct 25, 2023

Asata: This very readable book acquaints us with several unique and amazing Pacific Giant Octopuses, as well as the team of people who care for them at the New England Aquarium. The author weaves her own research trips in with the fascinating lives of the octopuses, the lives of her friends both at the aquarium and around the world, and lots of rich detail about them all. Highly recommended.

United States on Oct 11, 2023

Becca: Sy Montgomery beautifully writes about her various interactions with various octopuses. I got to enjoy the audio version of this book, and she read it so beautifully. She explores whether animals, specifically octopus, have a consciousness and a soul. The author poetically provides incredible and vast information on octopuses and other sea creatures.

The book reads more like a memoir than that of an informative/educational novel. I appreciate the facts and quotes the author provides. I did indeed learn things about all kinds of sea creatures and life for animals in an aquarium. However, I can foresee a more educated person than I, especially one with a philosophical background, to find this a bore. I also am not a fan of catching animals in the wild to be put on display in zoos and aquariums. I'd rather support rehabilitation. This book could be seen as a bit inhumane with the nonchalant idea/support of catching animals for zoos/aquariums. Although, I feel the people in this book made the most of the situation and befriended and deeply cared for each animal.

The author learning to scuba dive was surprisingly honest. I had no idea how hard and dangerous scuba diving...

United States on Aug 24, 2023

Gemma Summers: Who knew the octopus is such a complex creature, full of intelligence and capable of relationships

United Kingdom on Aug 01, 2023

Amazon Customer: My Mom loved it! It was a gift ♥️

Canada on Jul 25, 2023

Christian D. Orr: A worthy companion piece (even if the author didn't intend it as such) to Peter Godfrey-Smith's "Other Minds:________" While I already knew from other accounts (Godfrey-Smith, Jacques Cousteau, etc.) that octopuses were not only intelligent but ofttimes friendly and playful creatures, this book takes that notion even further; not only are octopuses sentient beings, they apparently even have distinct individual personalities (and, arguably, apparently even emotions) that become evident in their different interactions with individual human beings. A most fascinating, sometimes heartwarming, sometimes heartbreaking, always engrossing and enjoyable read.

RANDOM STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS (and noteworthy passages):
--"I knew little about octopuses—not even that the scientifically correct plural is not octopi, as I had always believed (it turns out you can’t put a Latin ending—i—on a word derived from Greek, such as octopus)." Hey wow, just like my buddy Jeremy Nelson said!

It can weigh as much as a man and stretch as long as a car, yet it can pour its baggy, boneless body through an opening the size of an orange." Like that one octopus...

United States on Apr 07, 2018

giki: A great book if you want to learn loads about octopuses, and let's face it – who wouldn't, octopuses are cool. Actually, they are way cooler and stranger than I had ever imagined. The author weaves her tale about her encounters, not just with octopuses at the New England Aquarium in Boston, but their human carers, with references to scientific papers, classical text, and works of philosophy and psychology. It is a remarkably complete and wide-ranging view of the octopus from just about every angle. And the informal conversational style makes it very readable too. It tries to get as close as t possible to trying to understand the emotional inner life of the octopus without anthropomorphising. I am not sure it entirely succeeds in this, there is plenty sentimentality, especially towards the end. For me, the big elephant in the room, lightly glossed over from time to time, was the whole issue around capturing such an intelligent animal from the wild and keeping it in a fairly barren and unstimulating aquarium (or pickle barrel!!). The octopuses are able to solve puzzles quickly and have complex social interactions with people, most of their time is spent in the unchanging...

United Kingdom on Sep 26, 2017

J T.: This is a really original and important book because it challenges ( in a very readable, story-telling way) the conventional scientific wisdom that octopuses, being invertebrate animals with brains that are very different from ours, cannot possibly have intelligence and emotions that are of any interest to us. The author starts going to a large North American aquarium, becomes deeply involved in watching, interacting with, and understanding octopuses, and this sets her off on a journey (intellectual, emotional, as a scuba diver) the lives of octopus and their amazing behaviour and capabilities. There's also a lot about fish, also often written off by both science and society as pretty brainless and uninteresting (except when of use to people for commercial exploitation and food!). Because the author writes the book as a personal journey, including the many people as well as marine animals she meets on the way, there are lots of really interesting insights and experiences described along the way. For me, this way of writing can in places lack a bit of momentum and seem a little meandering, but that didn't stop me reading it.

United Kingdom on Jul 23, 2015