This coming September, nicely timed to coincide with the beginning of the new school year, two new volumes are joining Princeton University Press’ The Lives of the Natural World series, the first of which is The Lives of Octopuses and Their Relatives; A Natural History of Cephalopods by Dr. Danna Staaf.
“Octopuses?” I hear you ask. “Shouldn’t it be octopi?”
I thought so as well, and then upon reflection thought that perhaps it was another instance of these creatures having an unusual plural naming structure, such as in “fish” for a reference to one fish, “fish” for more than one fish of the same species, and “fishes” for more than one species of fish; thus “octopus” for one octopus, “octopi” for more than one octopus of the same species, and “octopuses” for more than one species of octopus. However I was incorrect. The preferred plural of octopus is octopuses; octopi, with its faux Latin ending, has worked its way into common use over the years but the correct plural is octopuses.
But I digress.
Like its predecessors in the series, The Lives of Octopuses and Their Relatives provides and extensively full color photo and drawing illustrated structure, and follows a habitat themed organization featuring representative species with explanations of their biology and life history along with overviews of the habitat’s ecology that should make the book very appealing to beginning naturalists and new-comers to the subject of cephalopods (octopuses, squids, cuttlefish, and members of the family Nautilidae). The case laminate binding also makes it well-suited for school – as well as home, of course – libraries.
The copy that has reached my desk shows the book to be, as with previous volumes in the series, very well suited to dedicated reading and reference, as well as to relaxed casual browsing (which will likely lead to dedicated reading). I look forward to spending more time with it doing each in the near future.
