Life On Earth, by David Attenborough

Honestly, why did I think an audio-book version of David Attenborough would make any @$ing sense to read? Television was almost invented for Attenborough, of course you should watch the footage while listening to him instead of just listening to him.

The original spirit of BookThoughts is that they would specifically not be reviews, but rather rambling chains of thought that were merely inspired by the reading of some book or other, catalysed by the book but not actually about it. (I think the most-popular-ever book-thought was an essay about life in the military and bad relationships, masquerading as a response to a romance novel?) And I feel I've lost that spirit lately, but perhaps it's returning to me: tonight I've been sitting here writing 4 book-thoughts in a row, in what I guess you would call a manic episode if it were at all manic, but instead it's kind of a placid clicker-clackering on this keyboard.

I think David Attenborough is the kind of celebrity that everyone wants to be: a National Treasure, someone who gets to be uncontroversial and beloved and Above It All. (God help me if one of you now tells me that Attenborough has been milkshake-ducked, I don't think I could take that).

But I don't know how you become an Attenborough, in a world where the main ways to get famous all seem to involve being/acting deeply controversial. And that makes me sad.