“Fish could become extinct within fifty years.” Fifty. Years. Those words on the blurb hit me every time I read it. I couldn’t imagine what the world would be like without fish. A disaster? A complete change? I couldn’t imagine it. I read with numerous questions and concerns in mind. The statics and facts are staggering. And the crisis now is heart-breaking… Take a look at this book:
“World Without Fish” by Mark Kurlansky uses the whole book to inform us of the “alarming but least-known” disaster the world is facing right now – the extinction of fish and the depletion of our oceans. This book is written in an objective and informative tone with data and details. Kurlansky first acknowledged how urgent the situation is and how big of an impact it will have on us. Then he took us back to history when it started to turn out wrong, scientists’ solutions to solve this problem, other causes that affected the marine populations were also mentioned in the book: some brief, some thorough. In the end, he used the simplest words to inform us how we could make a difference. “Informative and interesting” are the two best words to describe this book.
This book was such a good read for me despite the fact that it was 98% nonfiction… it gave me an insightful look into the unrealized but harsh crisis of fish distinction. In addition, it provided me a thorough consideration of how we are deeply interconnected to ocean life. I hope you can take a few minutes to scroll down my blog page and see the central ideas and themes I came across in this reading journey.
I came up with my first central idea fast, I read only a few chapters in the book, but that idea had stood apparent to me. Overfishing will and has already brought huge consequences to the ocean and land life was the first central idea in my book. The author immediately introduced the significant effects overfishing has on marine life as I opened the book and later connected it to land lives and how overfishing will impact us. Take a look over my first notebook page:
The first theme I had in mind is: All lives on earth are interconnected. This was frequently mentioned in the first few chapters of my book, and I could strongly agree with this theme. Take a look over this notebook page I have:
As I dived deeper into my book and read ways to solve the crisis of fishing extinction, I came across with another theme that’s not only relevant in the book but is also relevant to real-life: Not giving up on solving a problem will eventually lead you to success. The notebook pages below shows my understanding of the theme with evidence:
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Then I pushed myself to think more about what the author tells us. Accompanied by the two lessons: “expecting parts to connect” and “the joy of re-reading,” I re-read a part in my novel and connected it with a later part in my book. It allowed me to make a new central idea: People should listen to ones that have real experiences on a subject rather than the ones purely making hypotheses. I also had a theme: Misconceptions often lead to significant consequences. Here is the notebook page to track my thinking:
Finally, I created a synthesis page based on the lesson about causes and effects with the main idea in the middle: extinction of fish is heart-breaking… and it is also happening. One cause had led to another, then to another… many events had led to the tragedy of fishing extinction and the depletion of the ocean. I put this notebook page last because it summed up everything my book discussed. I gathered evidence from page 26 to page 140. That’s almost a range from the beginning to the end! Take a look at this page:
Thank you for making all the way through my blog post. I hope you could follow my thinkings and had a quick overview on my book – “World Without Fish.” Finally, if you seem to be interested in this book, you can check out more trailers and informations about it ._.
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