I
am now about a third of the way through it. We have made it to
Patagonia and I am really enjoying the adventure. Darwin is a keen-eyed
observer who seems to be taking his wild adventure in stride. Of course,
this is not a word for word sharing of his diary but a version edited by
Darwin for publication--thus it is choppy in places and there are gaps.
Sometimes I think I would like to be reading the unedited diaries and
in other moments I am sure that 25 hours of this will be sufficient. I would love to include a quote or two but alas, that is so hard to do when the words evaporate just as quickly as they are spoken. I was lucky to grab the quote in title. One thing I would like to quote is Darwin's description of the geology the escarpments of Patagonia. I'd quote it side by side with a Terry Pratchett comment on a similar local geology. Darwin's description was sober and scientific. Not Pratchett's: banded with so many colors of rock it looked as though some hungry god had made the all-time-record club sandwich.
Another deficiency in the audio format is the lack of visuals. There is no map and there are no illustrations. Thank goodness for Google!! I was able to find a maps. This is my favorite so far.
Darwin spends a lot of time in South America (4 years of the 5 year journey) and it is very helpful to be able to see the coming and goings plotted out on a map.He gives dates along the way but I have trouble remembering them from chapter to chapter, so I have no feeling for the passing of time as the tale progresses.