Everyone knew it was Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday last Thursday (12th) right? I shamefully ignored the momentous occasion at the time (probably because anything ‘sciencey’ including Darwin puts me to sleep – no excuse I know). However Nicki (aka Fyrefly) didn’t ignore the date and she titillated my fancy by posting a shot on her lit blog of her ‘novelty Darwin’ standing proudly in front of a trio of Darwinian publications..hehehe 
) (great minds think alike though eh? )).
Nicki also mentioned in passing that in this special year of anniversary she should return to Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle, a book she started reading but never finished. That casual remark got my brain-cogs whirring:
Rob’s Brain: “Wow Rob! Isn’t ‘Voyage of the Beagle’ Darwin’s published journal, the one recording his five-year voyage around the globe aboard that creaky old HMS Beagle?”
Rob: “Yeah but it’s Darwin! It’s going to be all ‘sciencey’ and put me to sleep isn’t it?”
Rob’s Brain: “Well it may be a bit ‘sciencey’ but remember this is just as much a Darwinian travel memoir as anything else. So for the wanderlust factor it’s got to be worth reading, right?”
Rob: “Hmmm, you’re right Brain! I wonder if there’s any way I can fit this into my reading schedule?”
So with that thought in mind (I’m incorrigible )), I set out on a ‘research recce’ to find out a bit more about Voyage of the Beagle, and in particular how it’s structured. Not surprisingly I found it easily (given Darwin’s works are all in the public domain), and checking through it I discovered that it has a structure that could actually work in my favour. How so? Well as anyone who’s read it knows, Voyage of the Beagle is presented with its chapters organised by the locations visited during the voyage. Twenty-two chapters in total, with each chapter being easily readable in a single short sitting. This means if I read Voyage of the Beagle gradually, fitting in a chapter whenever the opportunity arises, I could gradually work my way through the book, and put right, in the year of his bicentennial, the shameful truth that I’ve spent a lifetime ignoring Darwin (plus I’d have an excuse to use another one of my ubiquitous alliterations for the challenge title – I’m incorrigible in that respect too )).
So thanks to Fyrefly and her ‘novelty Darwin’ for planting the seed in my head, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. I’m calling the ‘challenge’ Darting Around With Darwin, and I’m going to chip away at Voyage of the Beagle, a chapter at a time, until there’s nothing left to chip away at. My only hope is that Darwin speaks more about the journey than the science )
Oh and P.S. I’m just going to download the public domain version of Voyage of the Beagle on to my Sony Reader and use that for this reading challenge. I was going to go and pick up the Penguin Classics version of the book but I can’t see any extra benefit in doing so. Anyone?
About Rob
The Voyage of the Beagle is (at least the first few chapters that I read) not all that science-y. I think people tend to forget that Darwin on the HMS Beagle was not the bearded old fart pictured above, but a young man in his 20s who didn’t feel like med school, didn’t feel like seminary, and just kind of enjoyed puttering around the countryside. At least twice in the little bit that I read, he mentions how tame the birds were, and he could tell this because he could reach over and bash them in the head with his rock hammer.
Plus, I think you’ve shamed me into joining you. Let’s go read some Darwin!
says:
“Plus, I think you’ve shamed me into joining you. Let’s go read some Darwin!
Nicki if there was ever a line that made us both look like extreme book geeks then this is it
)
Anyway thanks for the extra info. You know it never occurred to me that Darwin may not have always been so geeky, and the rock hammer example certainly confirms that…hehehe!
Looking forward to the journey, and I hope you’ve brought your waterproofs!