Reply to post #9 (show post):
The cat episode had me laugh out loud! If this is in their original diaries, I'd like to find the original description - it would be cool to see if they had a similar sense of humor about it as we do.

Maybe a bit of both. The writing was too superficial- going over the whole trip too fast, and I've done enough horrible field trips to know about mosquitoes and ticks. I'm surprised they didn't pick up ticks and tick-bite fever (or maybe they did?), but maybe ticks don't like jungles? I think I've also seen too many animal documentaries and real life animals (crocodiles, leopards, hippos, pissed off elephant - not in cages) to get excited about reading a quick paragraph about them.

Does anyone know if you can get easily available printed copies of the original diaries or any of the books Humboldt wrote?

Reply to post #15 (show post):
I would love to see them in flight some day. Maybe they are much more graceful than I anticipate. :D

Reply to post #18 (show post):
I am looking into this - so far I have only downloaded the kindle versions that were free, but I haven't looked at them yet to see if they are any use.

Humboldt's magna opus Cosmos was originally published by John Murray (I think) - same publisher as Invention of Nature - but I don't know if they also published his previous works. I'll do some digging on this tonight.

The picture was gorgeous - and much more contrasting colours than I expected; I don't remember the flamingoes I've seen with black fringed wings. Stunning!

@Elentarri: I get what you mean about the feeling that she skimmed over their trip down the rivers, but I imagine it's a delicate balance between not enough detail and drowning your readers in too much. As much as I liked reading these chapters, I think too much more of the details would have become tedious to me. And I imagine researching it all, after some point it would all start to run together. Of course, this perspective, is probably one of the many reasons I'd make a terrible writer. :)

Reply to post #18 (show post):
I'd be very interested in his original diaries!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn_S9C-RDRw

I´ve recently read the first part of "The River of Doubt" by Candice Millard, a book about Theodor Roosevelt and his endeavour to follow the most dangerous river in the Amazon. Multiple times they were in danger, because of animals, diseases, attacks from tribes, the loss of their food and so on. And when I stopped reading the book, they hadn´t even managed to reach their final destination yet.
So I felt that the chapter about their Amazon travel has been too superficial, too. This has to be a vicious place. As much as I enjoyed reading about the different tastes of the tributaries, drinking riverwater had to have an effect on their digestive system. Having said that I still enjoy this book a whole lot.

I have found Humboldts original diaries, but unfortunately only in German and in a terrible fond. Who knows, maybe it will get translated someday.

Reply to post #24 (show post):
Oh, don't you just love a bit old German "Fraktur" font. ;D
It seems to have been printed on really thin paper, too. The scanner picked up text from the other side of the pages.

Still, I love that they have the digitised version available online. Many thanks for the link.

Reply to post #25 (show post):
You´re welcome :). And thanks for telling me the name of the fond.

Imagine if the diary would have been handwritten in Sütterlin. Oh, what a joy that would have been ;). The "Fraktur" fond is at least perfectly readable.

Reply to post #26 (show post):
Hehe, my first encounter with Th. Mann (you know how much I "adore" his books) was an old copy of Buddenbrooks in "Fraktur" - it took FOREVER to read. :(

But, I don't mind the font now. It's just a matter of getting used to it. I still struggle with Suetterlin. :(

Reply to post #24 (show post):
Thank you for the link. I will have to brush up on my German :)

@ Murder by Death and Lillelara re Amazon voyage - I think it depends on the reader's personal perspective/experience whether skimming over the trip works or not. I can't really penalise the author for making it shorter simply because there is so much other stuff to write about, even if I would have preferred more. On the chapter with Goethe I found all the philosophy annoying, but I've always been irritated at the wishy- washy-ness of philosophy. But it was necessary to include that because it affected Humboldt and he in turn influenced the philosophy of his day.

Reply to post #28 (show post):
Ammy tells me that there is a Penguin edition - both in print and for kindle - of his travel diaries (in English).

Look for Personal Narrative of a Journey to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent.

This also seems to exist as free kindle versions (but without Penguin editing / formatting, forword, different translator).
I have also looked at the German versions of the free kindle editions - they are very readable (without Fraktur!).

The free versions are basically copies from Project Gutenberg.