Being a Beast
Adventures Across the Species Divide
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Narrated by:
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Charles Foster
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By:
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Charles Foster
About this listen
A passionate naturalist explores what it's really like to be an animal - by living like them.
How can we ever be sure that we really know the other? To test the limits of our ability to inhabit lives that are not our own, Charles Foster set out to know the ultimate other: the nonhumans, the beasts. And to do that, he tried to be like them, choosing a badger, an otter, a fox, a deer, and a swift. He lived alongside badgers for weeks, sleeping in a sett in a Welsh hillside and eating earthworms, learning to sense the landscape through his nose rather than his eyes. He caught fish in his teeth while swimming like an otter; rooted through London garbage cans as an urban fox; was hunted by bloodhounds as a red deer, nearly dying in the snow. And he followed the swifts on their migration route over the Strait of Gibraltar, discovering himself to be strangely connected to the birds.
A lyrical, intimate, and completely radical look at the life of animals - human and other - Being a Beast mingles neuroscience and psychology, nature writing and memoir to cross the boundaries separating the species. It is an extraordinary journey full of thrills and surprises, humor and joy. And, ultimately, it is an inquiry into the human experience in our world, carried out by exploring the full range of the life around us.
©2016 Charles Foster (P)2016 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Afield
- American Writers on Bird Dogs
- By: David Smith - editor, Robert Demott - editor
- Narrated by: Bryan Brendle
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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This marvelous collection features stories from some of America’s finest and most respected writers about every outdoorsman’s favorite and most loyal hunting partner: his dog. For the first time, the stories of acclaimed writers such as Richard Ford, Tom Brokaw, Howell Raines, Rick Bass, Sydney Lea, Jim Harrison, Tom McGuane, Phil Caputo, and Chris Camuto come together in one collection. Hunters and non-hunters alike will recognize in these poignant tales the universal aspects of owning dogs.
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Great stories. Poor performance.
- By Paul on 12-09-17
By: David Smith - editor, and others
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How to Be a Good Creature
- A Memoir in Thirteen Animals
- By: Sy Montgomery
- Narrated by: Sy Montgomery
- Length: 3 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Understanding someone who belongs to another species can be transformative. No one knows this better than author, naturalist, and adventurer Sy Montgomery. To research her books, Sy has traveled the world and encountered some of the planet's rarest and most beautiful animals. From tarantulas to tigers, Sy's life continually intersects with and is informed by the creatures she meets. This restorative memoir reflects on the personalities and quirks of 13 animals - Sy's friends - and the truths revealed by their grace.
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Enchanting Start To 2019....
- By Rory on 01-02-19
By: Sy Montgomery
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The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating
- By: Elisabeth Tova Bailey
- Narrated by: Renee Raudman
- Length: 3 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Elisabeth Tova Bailey tells the intimate and inspiring story of her year-long encounter with a snail. While an illness keeps her bedridden, she becomes an astute and amused observer of the snail's surprising nocturnal adventures as it lives in a flowerpot on her nightstand. Intrigued by the snail’s clear decision making abilities, hydraulic locomotion, mysterious courtship, and molluscan anatomy, Bailey takes the listener deep into the life of this tiny amazing animal. With wit and grace, The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating recounts a remarkable journey of human and gastropod survival and resilience, and shows how the natural world illuminates our own human existence. Winner of the William Saroyan International Prize for Nonfiction, the John Burrough Medal Award for Natural History, and a National Outdoor Book Award. If you enjoyed Wesley the Owl, The Guest Cat, and Marley & Me, you'll enjoy this unique interspecies audiobook listen.
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This is an unexpected wonder. The quiet virtues of the snail reflect the quiet voyage of the author.
- By Frances on 08-03-15
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My Family and Other Animals
- By: Gerald Durrell
- Narrated by: Nigel Davenport
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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This memoir is soaked in the sunshine of Corfu, where Gerald Durrell lived as a boy, surrounded by his eccentric family - as well as puppies, toads, scorpions, geckoes, ladybugs, glowworms, octopuses, bats, and butterflies.
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A thoroughly delightful book!
- By T.K. on 06-21-08
By: Gerald Durrell
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Almost Anywhere
- Road-Trip Ruminations on Love, Nature, Recovery, and Nonsense
- By: Krista Schlyer
- Narrated by: Marisa Vitali
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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What do you do when your world ends? At 28 years old, Krista Schlyer sold almost everything she owned and packed the rest of it in a station wagon bound for the American wild. Her two best friends joined her - one a grumpy, grieving introvert, the other a feisty dog - and together they sought out every national park, historic site, forest, and wilderness they could get to before their money ran out or their minds gave in.
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No a travelogue - its a diary
- By Jonathan on 12-29-20
By: Krista Schlyer
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Far North
- A Novel
- By: Marcel Theroux
- Narrated by: Yelena Schmulenson
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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My father had an expression for a thing that turned out bad. He'd say it had gone west. But going west always sounded pretty good to me. After all, westwards is the path of the sun. And through as much history as I know of, people have moved west to settle and find freedom. But our world had gone north, truly gone north, and just how far north I was beginning to learn.
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Spellbinding!
- By Joan on 01-14-10
By: Marcel Theroux
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Beatlebone
- By: Kevin Barry
- Narrated by: Kevin Barry
- Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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It is 1978, and John Lennon has escaped New York City to try to find the island off the west coast of Ireland he bought nine years prior. Leaving behind domesticity, his approaching 40s, his inability to create, and his memories of his parents, he sets off to find calm in the comfortable silence of isolation. But when he puts himself in the hands of a shape-shifting driver full of Irish charm and dark whimsy, what ensues can only be termed a magical mystery tour.
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Nooooo way
- By James on 11-17-15
By: Kevin Barry
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The Electricity of Every Living Thing
- A Woman's Walk in the Wild to Find Her Way Home
- By: Katherine May
- Narrated by: Katherine May
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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In anticipation of her 38th birthday, Katherine May set out to walk the 630-mile South West Coast Path. She wanted time alone, in nature, to understand why she had stopped coping with everyday life; why motherhood had been so overwhelming and isolating; and why the world felt full of expectations she couldn't meet. She was also reeling from a chance encounter with a voice on the radio that sparked her realisation that she might be autistic.
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Perfect!!!
- By Amazon Customer on 10-20-22
By: Katherine May
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Merle's Door
- Lessons from a Freethinking Dog
- By: Ted Kerasote
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 13 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Ted Kerasote met and adopted Merle, a Labrador mix, while he was on a camping trip. Merle had been living in the wild, and after taking the dog home with him to Wyoming, Kerasote soon realized that Merle could not adjust to inhabiting exclusively the human world. So he put a door in his house to let Merle live both outside and in. A deeply touching portrait of a remarkable animal, Merle's Door explores the issues that all animals and their human companions face.
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The Best Audio Book I've ever listened to
- By John Bonkowski on 07-15-07
By: Ted Kerasote
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Hatchet
- By: Gary Paulsen
- Narrated by: Peter Coyote
- Length: 3 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Newbery Award-winner Gary Paulsen's best-known book comes to audio in this breathless, heart-gripping drama about a boy pitted against the wilderness with only a hatchet and a will to live. On his way to visit his recently divorced father in the Canadian mountains, thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is the only survivor when the single-engine plane crashes. His body battered, his clothes in shreds, Brian must now stay alive in the boundless Canadian wilderness.
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Outstanding!
- By Raquel Aceves-Mittman on 02-14-12
By: Gary Paulsen
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Primordia
- In Search of the Lost World
- By: Greig Beck
- Narrated by: Sean Mangan
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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A journey into the deepest, darkest jungles of the Venezuelan Amazon...and a primeval place and time that mankind was never meant to exist in. Ben Cartwright, former soldier, home to mourn the loss of his father, stumbles upon cryptic letters from the past between author Arthur Conan Doyle and his great-great-grandfather who vanished while exploring the Amazon jungle in 1908. Amazingly, these letters lead Ben to believe that his ancestor’s expedition was the basis for Doyle’s fantastical tale of a lost world inhabited by long-extinct creatures.
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Return to the Lost World
- By Richard S. Swol on 07-14-18
By: Greig Beck
What listeners say about Being a Beast
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- evianho
- 04-09-17
Quietly brilliant. Great listen!
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
yes. it is very original. first time to know how great a vet could be.
What other book might you compare Being a Beast to and why?
i can't. this is one of its kind. i think the narration cannot be more genuine.
What does Charles Foster bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
the experience he has had being an animal before putting every insight into this precious book.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
Being an honest beast.
Any additional comments?
so very insightful...every bit that we could relate to as human. love the description of the season and months of the otters hunting for food...he is so funny!
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- Chicago Greeneggs
- 07-02-19
Brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!
Best performance on Audible, by far. By a mad naturalist who will go to any lengths in his persuit of connection and knowledge. Fascinating, witty, profound book about trying to understand the consciousness of animals. Spiritual, hilarious, profound.
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- Medulsa
- 07-30-23
What an adventure!
this sublime book will transport you into unexplored fascinating worlds. He writes with such clarity, soul searching thoughtfulness, wit, and vulnerability. It was sheer joy to accompany him on his exploration of Self and our place in the world. Thank you Mr Foster.
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- Rosemary F
- 04-18-18
Snuffle through the tunnel like a badger
Where does Being a Beast rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
This is one of the best. It's almost otherworldly as Foster lives like the animals himself, smelling messages from other beasts and getting dirt up his nose underground
What did you like best about this story?
The honesty in the preface was about as good as the "trials" themselves. Everyone has wondered what it would be like to be an animal, but, as he explains, we will never truly be able to. Despite this, he gets as close as he can to approximating their reality.
Which scene was your favorite?
Nearly fell off the exercycle laughing about his badger attempts.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
I loved this book. Some of it was serious and I learned from it, but some of it was hilarious.
Any additional comments?
This book is a real escape to other realities. I've never read anything quite like it (wrote the English major). I hope Mr. Foster continues to burrow his way through life and write more and more. My thanks to him.
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- Robert R. Ferber Jr.
- 04-30-18
Genuine and much more substantive than expected
The author winds into the topic through rational, almost clinical descriptive science, which paves a path that leaves me a bit bewildered when we get where we are going. It is not surprising we never quite get "there", and rearkably honest that the gap is allowed to stand.
The author is someone who looks at the world without believing all the stories, arrogances, and assumptions that our culture attempts to sell to us all.
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- bluedogchef
- 01-01-18
beautifully written, captivating voice
looking forward to reading more of Foster's work. loved listening. always hear something new each time I play it. so many layers to the work.
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- phoenix edgewood
- 06-22-18
I was really ready to like it...
I wanted to read this book since I heard an interview with the author on NPR. I got the audiobook to listen to while I drive. Alas, that was dangerous, as it quickly put me to sleep.
The premise is fascinating, and then the author tries too hard to be brilliant and clever. I wanted to know what he experienced, and what he learned from that experience. Instead, he goes on and on with semi-witty metaphors (which I usually love) and over-long descriptions of what worms taste like.
Maybe it's better to read while lounging in a hammock, when falling asleep wouldn't be so dangerous. Or when I could re-read the lengthy sentences to fully grasp what he's going on about. I'll add it to the list of books to try again.
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- Gigi
- 07-13-23
Not what I Expected
I hoped for an engaging immersion into otherworlds defined by different wats of experiencing Earth. The details are definitely written about. But the narration is dispassionate and seemingly bored and disappointed itself in what it is reading. I really tried to like this audiobook. I tried to set aside my visceral response to the narrator's voice, accent, dearth of emotion and energy--and ultimately could not. Each time I tried to dive back in I lasted about 20 minutes and had to press stop. I can't finish the book and I'm actually going to delete it from my library. I'm willing to bet if I were to check out the hardcopy at the library I would lose myself in it, though.
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- ANNH
- 11-13-23
I wanted to like it more
I was very excited about the premise of this book, and I loved the first section about being badger, which he awesomely did with his young son. That part was inspiring. But after that I felt like I was taken down a depressing path into the authors emotions, sarcasm and dark world view and hardly ever got back into an animal again. Also I was not enamored of how often he seemed to need to mention genitals. Maybe a guy would be less sensitive to that.
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2 people found this helpful